Brewing with the heat of the sun

Carlsberg Group has taken another step towards decarbonizing its breweries worldwide through an agreement to install a pilot solar collector field at Olympic Brewery's Sindos Site in Greece.

The pilot could pave the way towards Carlsberg Group's target for ZERO carbon emissions from its breweries by 2030 as part of its Together Towards ZERO program.

Technology partner, Absolicon, has developed an optically efficient concentrating solar thermal collector for heat and steam. The trough design is programmed to follow the sun, and a curved silver-coated mirror focuses the sun's rays towards a solar collector tube. Pressurized hot water is circulated through the tube, generating steam for use in the brewery – an entirely renewable resource to replace natural gas.

During the one-year pilot to be installed in early 2022, Carlsberg will work together to understand the potential of the technology for its breweries around the world.

Surinder Singh, senior director of New Technologies, Carlsberg Group, said, "We're excited by the potential of this technology to support the decarbonization of our breweries globally by 2030, by harnessing the ultimate source of renewable heat energy – the sun. Collaborating across our business and with partners like Absolicon is vital to identifying and scaling the solutions to create renewable heat energy. We're pleased to be going together towards zero."

Joakim Byström, chief executive officer of Absolicon, added, "Absolicon's strategy to create a global market for industrial solar heating is to collaborate with multinational companies with high climate ambitions. We are impressed by Carlsberg's climate work and look forward to this first joint project."

Brewing requires two types of energy – electricity and thermal energy. Thermal energy accounts for almost three-quarters of total energy use. Across the Group, two-thirds of our electricity is already sourced from renewables, but the technology is not yet available at scale for thermal energy. That's why this trial is exciting – a pilot of innovative technology to use renewable thermal energy from the sun to brew beer.