The beer at one of Maine's top breweries just got a little sweeter thanks to two innovative solar trackers powering the brewery and tasting room for The Maine Beer Company, in Freeport.
The 55.12 kW solar project will help offset the electrical bills of the company, which brews 13 beers from its headquarters on Route 1 in Freeport and ships to distributors in 10 states.
Maine Beer Company lives by its slogan to ‘do what's right.' The solar array will offset approximately half of the brewery's electric energy usage.
The project incorporates American-made AllEarth Solar Trackers, which track the sun throughout the day to maximize energy production, along with a rooftop array. The ground-mounted pre-engineered solar trackers are designed for residential and commercial-scale installations and are manufactured in Williston, Vermont, by AllEarth Renewables.
AllEarth Solar Trackers produce over 30% more energy than fixed ground-mounted systems and up to 45% more energy than rooftop systems, per kW installed.
The project was installed by Assured Solar Energy, a solar design and installation company in North Yarmouth, Maine.
"We were excited to supply innovative, American-made solar trackers for this project, a solar solution that will produce more energy from the sun and give our customers greater long-term energy savings," said Rob Taisey, president of Assured Solar Energy. "In addition to producing more energy to meet its electric demand, the Beer Company liked that the trackers would be a visible statement of its renewable energy commitment."
David Blittersdorf, president and CEO of AllEarth Renewables, said: "We are thrilled about Maine Beer Company's commitment to going solar and that it wanted to make the statement to its customers, and get the solar energy boost, from two of our locally-made solar trackers."
The project also features 164 REC 260-Watt solar panels, 94 SolarEdge Power Optimizers and 3 Solaredge AC Inverters.
Assured Solar Energy is working with Maine Beer Company to manage its energy usage and reduce demand charges through demand management, additional renewable energy, stored energy and possibly distributed generation, using micro combined heat and power. Its use of innovative SolarEdge technology will give it opportunities for future demand-side management with the innovative, energy-savvy brewing company.
