S. Korea's Oriental Brewery to use solar power in brewing beer

Oriental Brewery, South Korea’s largest beer maker by revenue, will start using solar power for brewing in pursuance of RE100, a global initiative to utilize 100 percent of electricity from renewable energy sources.

An MoU had been signed with Kepco Energy Solution and Aeonus to construct solar power generation facilities at Oriental Brewery's factories in Gwangju, Cheongju, and Icheon.

Under the arrangement, Oriental Brewery will provide the land area for building the facilities. Kepco Energy Solution will handle the engineering, procurement, and construction, while Aeonus will operate and manage the facilities and sell the electricity to Oriental Brewery.

Construction of the facilities is set to begin next month, with the first operation to start early next year. All three will be operational in the first half of next year.

The facilities will generate 12 gigawatt-hours of electricity for the factories annually, which would reduce 5,621 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

In the 30-year lifespan of the facilities, Oriental Brewery's operations will have a 160,000-ton carbon dioxide reduction.