Moslon Coors all solar in Milwaukee
Subscription program replaces leases to utility
Molson Coors Beverage Co.’s Milwaukee operations will be entirely powered by solar energy under a new deal with We Energies.
The brewing company is the first corporation to sign up for We Energies’ Renewable Pathway program, a cleanenergy subscription program that allows companies, local governments and other power users to buy a share of the energy produced by the utility’s solar developments, in this case the recently completed Badger Hollow Solar Farm in Iowa County.
Rachel Schneider, Molson Coors’ vice president of sustainability and environment, health and safety, said the agreement advances the company’s goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
“We first put those goals in place in 2017 and using renewable electricity is a pretty important lever for reducing those emissions. That’s a big reason why we’re pretty excited to be a participant,” she said.
The program doesn’t send electricity directly from the We Energies solar farm to Molson Coors. That power, like all of its electric output, goes to the electric grid and is co-mingled with other sources of electricity.
The Renewable Pathway program is a subscription program that allows customers to lay claim to a share of the utility’s solar energy output and receive renewable energy certificates for each megawatt of power it buys. The certificates count toward a customer’s renewable energy and carbon reduction goals.
Molson Coors’ subscription is for 27 megawatts of Badger Hollow’s 300 megawatt capacity. That’s enough to power the State Street Brewery, Leinenkugel’s 10th Street Brewery, Watertown Hops Company, the Milwaukee corporate offices and other smaller locations.
New program replaces rooftop, land leases to utility
The program was created last year as a replacement for Solar Now, a program in which partners leased rooftops or vacant land to the utility for small solar installations from which they could buy power and receive renewable energy
credits.
The new program allows customers to buy up to 100% of their consumption from solar or wind power sources. Under rates set by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, subscribers pay a small premium to ensure that the cost of building solar installations with dedicated customers is not passed on to other ratepayers.
“This innovative program is another effort to ensure our customers have the affordable, reliable and clean energy they depend on,” said Scott Lauber, president of We Energies. “We raise a glass to this partnership and thank Molson Coors for its commitment to a more sustainable city and state.”
Molson Coors is the first We Energies customer to sign up for the Renewable Pathway program. The utility and the City of Milwaukee previously announced a Renewable Pathway agreement under which the city will buy 10.6 megawatts of solar power from new solar developments at a former landfill on East College Avenue and at a site in Racine County.
That agreement was put on hold by the city’s Public Works Committee due to some committee members’ concerns about the added cost of buying power through the Renewable Pathway program and the enforceability of a provision calling for 20% of the construction jobs being filled by participants in Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership/ BIG STEP job training programs.
Molson Coors is using a mix of renewable one-year and five-year subscriptions to meet its energy needs. The company is committed to the program long term, but the shorter contracts will allow it to adjust subscriptions as needs change.
“That’s one of the reasons this is an attractive program,” Schneider said. “It gives us some flexibility to be able to more closely match the quantity that we’re subscribing with our actual consumption.”
The program also overcomes the hurdles of finding enough space for onsite solar power generation or working with a company that would require a longer, fixed commitment under a purchased power agreement, she said.
Molson Coors also powers its Leinenkugel’s brewery in Chippewa Falls with renewable energy under a similar, but differently structured, agreement with Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy.
“We’ve now got all of Wisconsin covered,” Schneider said.