In what they believe to be the world’s first, Asahi Group’s Carlton and United Breweries, an Australian beer maker, is now offering Victorian Bitter to households with rooftop solar energy to spare.
The brewery has already installed solar panels on its Melbourne brewery and is purchasing solar energy from a farm, but to meet its clean energy goal of 100 percent renewable power by 2025, the company is offering canned beer in exchange for excess solar power from households.
Residents with energy provider Diamond Energy can get 24 cans of beer for every A$30 of energy credit they give the brewery. According to the company, that’s better than the standard energy trade-in rate customers would otherwise get.
Participating households can use Power Ledger, a blockchain-enabled energy trading platform, to track their energy production and see how many cans of beer they earn every hour.
Although not as revolutionary as new wind turbine designs or large-scale renewable grid advancements, the program is a fun way to raise awareness of the personal value of localized rooftop solar and the marketing push may encourage other companies to take the 100 percent renewable pledge.
