Heineken brews beer with 100% renewable energy

Wieckse, a wheat beer market leader in the Netherlands, has installed 3632 solar panels on the roof of its brewery in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, southern Netherlands.

The solar power capacity is 908 kWp and the system is expected to produce 855,000 kWh of electricity every year.

This is enough to provide all the electrical power required by the brewing processes for the company’s entire range of beers – Wieckse, Wieckse Witte, Wieckse Rosé and both non-alcoholic variants.

A first in the Netherlands, Wieckse is the only company in the private sector to implement a solar power project of this scale without government funding.

The move to solar power will be advertised on all its new packaging from this month and Wieckse sees its use of renewables as a natural progression in line with its pre-existing branding.

Wieckse’s marketing manager Marie Monique van der Salm said: “An image of the sun has figured prominently in the centre of our brand logo for years, so actually using solar energy to produce the power required for brewing our beers is both a dream come true and a logical step for Wieckse.”

Conor McGlone