Wineries & Breweries in Australia Offering Electrons from Sunshine

Made by sunshine, drunk in sunshine — some wineries are going greener in Australia.

At Hidden Creek Winery Cafe Vineyard near Stanthorpe, Queensland, they throw in a free charge for your Tesla (or any other electric vehicle) when you stop in, offering fresh electrons from their solar roof.

Now, a larger winery is also going 100% solar. Treasury Wine Estates, which produces the premium brands Penfolds, Wolf Blass, Pepperjack, and Wynns, has pledged to source its electricity needs from 100% solar by 2024. Barossa Valley wineries have already achieved 100% renewable energy by installing a 3MW solar system. A 1.4MW system powers the Barossa Valley operations of the Yalumba Family. Even more reason to relax as you tipple your favorite drop. 

Solar breweries are also in the news. Carlton & United Breweries subsidiary the Asahi Beverage Yatala on Queensland’s Gold Coast has installed a 3MW rooftop solar system. This qualifies as Australia’s biggest rooftop solar installation on a brewery. Queensland’s sunshine is powering the brewing of Great Northern, Victoria Bitter, and Carlton Draught.

“We’re committed to making the Yatala Brewery more sustainable and estimate the solar we generate will be enough to brew around 150 million stubbies or cans each year,” Yatala Brewery plant manager Tom Robinson said.

Carlton & United Breweries also has solar on its Abbotsford brewery in Melbourne. 

Now we need some electric trucks, vans, and utes to decarbonize the supply chain. 

Prime Minister Morrison might be tempted to have a go at the inner city sophisticates sipping their wine and touting their green credentials. But he better watch how much he criticizes solar power when down at the pub with the truckies, tradies, and sometimes “quiet Australians” sipping a beer after a hard day’s work. Solar powered beer: does it pass the “pub test?”

It’s a bewdy!

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