Keep Your Beer Cold With Solar

It may seem silly at first, but one St. Petersburg warehouse has shown the community just how far one can push the uses of solar energy. Although solar panels and grids haven’t quite made it into the mainstream in Florida, some Sunshine State residents are taking the steps necessary to introduce solar into their businesses and daily lives nonetheless. Great Bay Distributers, one of the largest distributors of Anheuser-Busch products, has seen the potential for solar and is incorporating 5,000 solar panels into their newest warehouse.

The company moves 9.5 million cases of beer, both craft and mass-market, each year, and there is no doubt that keeping all that beer cold can jack up utility costs. However, the new warehouse is due to be the most efficient yet, and its solar panels could boast the record for the state’s largest private solar power system. However, it wasn’t the swelling interest in local solar energy that pushed CEO, Ron Petrini, to make the addition. It was the money the company would save.

Great Bay is due to cut their electricity costs by 40 percent, and they will even reap the benefits of a two-year tax credit which brings the overall cost of the $55,000 solar panels by 30 percent. In general, a full return on the investment is expected within just six short years. However, the system is expected to stay relevant and beneficial for years to come.

Although Great Bay’s latest project should be complete early next year, the company says, with the growth of craft beers, there is need and room for even more expansion in the coming years. Surely, as a private business, there is no better way to plan for the future than to invest in solar.