Oriental Brewery to produce beer using self-produced solar energy

Oriental Brewery said on Thursday that it has begun building solar power generation facilities at its beer production bases, a move that could offset over 5,600 tons of carbon footprint each year.

Under the beer manufacturer’s decision to join the Renewable Energy 100 initiative, which is designed to encourage the use of solar power, it will become the first corporation to build its own infrastructure to generate renewable energy for self-consumption, the company said.

The solar energy generators will be installed at the company’s three production plants in Icheon, Cheongju and Gwangju following an agreement with Kepco Energy Solution and Aenous which was signed last year.

The three locations will generate some 12 gigawatt hours in total every year, which will be then used for the beer production process.

The plan is to gradually install the systems and begin the solar energy-backed beer production sometime in the first half of next year at all of its three plants.

With some 5,621 tons of carbon dioxide set to be reduced each year, the facilities are expected to last 30 years, which could cut down more than 160,000 tons of carbon footprint down the line.

“It marks the first step towards using 100 percent renewable energy,” said Oriental Brewery CEO Ben Verhaert.

“As a leading ESG company, we plan to actively complete the RE100 initiative and respond to climate change, as well as cooperating with carbon neutral policy,” he added.

The company said it seeks to rely on renewable energy completely by 2025 by gradually expanding its use by taking part in power purchase agreements and green pricing.

By Yim Hyun-su (hyunsu@heraldcorp.com)