Solar power provider SolarCity and MillerCoors completed a 3.2 MW array that consists of more than 10,000 solar panels installed across ten acres of the brewery’s grounds in Irwindale, northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The solar power system is expected to produce enough energy to brew more than 7 million cases of beer annually.
The new project allows MillerCoors to increase the brewery’s energy independence and will offer impactful environmental benefits to the San Gabriel Valley region and the residents of Los Angeles County. The system will prevent more than 144 million pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere over its lifetime — the equivalent of taking over 12,000 cars off the road or planting more than 6.2 million trees.
As the state of California continues to struggle with severe drought, the system will also save nearly 672 million gallons of water that would otherwise be consumed to produce electricity from fossil fuel or nuclear sources.
SolarCity, which operates in 15 states, opened one of its first operations centers in Southern California in 2007 and today has more than ten locations across the region. The company offers customers the opportunity to pay less for solar electricity than they pay for utility power and currently serves tens of thousands of homeowners and businesses across the U.S.
