Brewery solar case studies
The projects below are illustrative, modelled from real brewery building types, load profiles and typical UK irradiance, and show the kind of system, saving and payback we design for craft, regional and nano breweries. They are examples, not named clients.
Breweries across the UK are already proving the case. As independent, third-party examples (not our clients): Stewart Brewing in Edinburgh invested about £180,000 in a 210 kW array generating roughly 165,000 kWh a year, meeting 65 to 70% of its electricity; a cluster of Bristol craft breweries, Left Handed Giant, Moor Beer and Wiper & True, fitted a combined 120 kW; Moorhouse's in Burnley runs a 50 kWp system; St Austell in Cornwall has hundreds of panels across its sites and targets 50% renewables by 2030; and Adnams in Southwold pairs solar PV with solar thermal. The illustrative projects below show how we would model the same for your brewery.
220 kW rooftop install for a growing craft brewery in Yorkshire
An expanding craft brewery producing around 30,000 hectolitres a year in a 1,600 square metre industrial unit, running a glycol chilling plant, a canning line, compressed air and CIP on a daytime brewing schedule with continuous fermentation cooling. A doubled electricity bill was squeezing margins in a tough market, and a supermarket customer had begun asking for Scope 2 data. The steady refrigeration baseload made the site a high-self-consumption candidate.
- System size
- 220 kW (490 panels, roof-mounted)
- Annual generation
- 187,000 kWh
- Annual saving
- £41,000 (year one, escalating with grid tariff)
- Simple payback
- 4.8 years
Outcome: 84% self-consumption on the continuous cooling and daytime production load. Surplus midday generation diverted into the hot liquor tank via an immersion element. Funded via asset finance, cash-flow positive from month one, and the on-site renewable data fed straight into the customer's supplier programme. Illustrative planning example.
480 kW install for a regional independent brewery with a distribution centre
A regional brewery supplying the multiples, producing well over 100,000 hectolitres a year across a brewhouse and a large distribution-centre roof, on half-hourly three-phase metering. FD-led, weighing capital allowances and IRR, and comfortably inside the Brewing-sector Climate Change Agreement. Grid capacity, not roof area, was the design constraint, so a G100 export-limitation scheme was used.
- System size
- 480 kW (1,050 panels, roof-mounted)
- Annual generation
- 408,000 kWh
- Annual saving
- £82,000
- Simple payback
- 4.3 years
Outcome: 88% self-consumption against the site's large continuous cooling and packaging load. G100 export limitation avoided a costly network reinforcement. The renewable share was reported into the brewery's CCA target and its customers' Scope 3 disclosures, and the Annual Investment Allowance was claimed in year one. Illustrative planning example.
18 kW install for a nanobrewery and taproom on a leased unit
A nanobrewery and taproom on a five-year lease in a small industrial unit, brewing small batches with a cold room and evening taproom trade. Cash was tight and the tenure ruled out a large capital spend, but the owner wanted a genuine '100% renewable' brand story to put in front of drinkers.
- System size
- 18 kW (40 panels, roof-mounted)
- Annual generation
- 15,300 kWh
- Annual saving
- £3,400
- Simple payback
- 6.2 years
Outcome: Near-total self-consumption across the brewing, cold-room and taproom load. Funded through a Power Purchase Agreement with landlord consent, so the brewery paid nothing up front and bought solar power below grid for the life of the lease, and the taproom now markets its 'solar-powered pint'. Illustrative planning example.