Molson Coors Canada works with takeCHARGE to save over $13,500 annually on electricity costs.
If you are a beer enthusiast you may know that light and beer don’t mix. However when Molson Coors looked to cut electricity costs at their St. John’s location, it turned out that LED lighting technology paired nicely with their brewery and office facilities. The local brewer teamed up with takeCHARGE to take on a complete lighting renovation.
With LED bulbs now available in a variety of shapes and sizes, Molson Coors was able to swap out every light in their brewery and offices with the more energy efficient LED bulbs. This simple change will save them over $13,500 every year on their electricity costs.
Through takeCHARGE’s Business Efficiency Program, Molson Coors also received a $14,500 rebate which covered over 20% of the upfront costs. With the combined savings, the project will pay for itself in four years, and it was as easy as changing a light bulb. LED lighting is also longer lasting, so the bulbs will need to be replaced less often – this means Molson Coors will also save on maintenance and the cost of replacement bulbs. As Bill Hunt, Engineering Manager at Molson Coors reports, “We are committed to reducing Our Beer Print, which is a term Molson Coors uses to describe the impact of our production on the environment. As a part of this commitment, we have a goal to reduce our energy consumption by 25% over the next four years. With the help of takeCHARGE we are getting closer to meeting that goal. We installed the LED lights in January and are already seeing the benefits in the form of lower monthly electricity bills and improved lighting levels.” The lighting makeover did not stop there, the brewery is going to take advantage of the rebate takeCHARGE offers on occupancy sensors to even further reduce lighting costs. Using occupancy sensors to turn lights on and off as needed can cut down on energy use by as much as 40%. Molson Coors has now paired motion or occupancy sensors with 90% of the brewery’s lighting – and the resulting savings are over and above the savings gained through LED lighting. “Every one of our employees has made a personal commitment to energy conservation,” says Sean Kennedy, Brewery Manager. “Occupancy sensors are a simple fix to reduce electrical consumption and overall costs.” This is not the first energy efficient advancement to be made to the over 120 year old brewery. When Molson Coors started to aggressively focus on cutting down energy use, the brewery installed a variable speed drive air compressor and added variable speed drives to its large refrigeration motors to more efficiently enable it to reduce consumption during non-production hours. Variable speed drives can be used in a wide variety of applications and can reduce energy use by 35% or more compared to motors running at a constant speed.
This is definitely not the last energy efficient project that the local brewer will undertake. Hunt explained, “Everything has gone very smoothly. takeCHARGE was great to work with and the rebate process was stress-free. All companies have very tight thresholds for funding projects and the rebates available from the Business Efficiency Program make marginal projects viable, which benefits everyone. We will be sure to contact takeCHARGE before starting our next project.”
Did you Know?
- Molson Coors St. John’s lighting upgrade will save enough electricity to power over 600 beer fridges for an entire year.
- The brewery will be able to brew over 7,000,000,000 bottles of beer before they will need to replace their LED lights.
- The inventors of the LED lighting technology that was used in the project won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014.
- The St. John’s Molson Coors Brewery is the only location to brew Black Horse, India Beer and Dominion Ale.
takeCHARGE has rebates and advice to help every size and type of business save energy. You can get up to $50,000 back with the Business Efficiency Program when you invest in energy efficient upgrades.
Call an energy expert to set up your complimentary assessment. Contact Chris (737-5382) or Peter (737-2603) at Newfoundland Power and Wade (737-1460) at Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro to get started, or visit TakeChargeNL.ca to learn more.