Lion installs solar on NZ’s largest brewery

Lion NZ has installed one of the largest rooftop solar arrays in New Zealand on the country’s biggest brewery in Auckland.

Lion says that the 2,424 panels on the roof of its East Tamaki brewery, known as the Pride, cover an area of around 5,400m2 and will be visible from flights in and out of nearby Auckland Airport.

The project is targeting completion in April and is being funded through a Power Purchase Agreement with Meridian.

Lion is Toitū net carbonzero certified and Lion NZ Managing Director Craig Baldie said increasing the use of renewable electricity supports Lion’s ongoing commitment to decarbonise its business.

Aerial view of the solar array on Lion’s East Tamaki brewery site

“At 1.21 megawatts it’s estimated that solar energy will provide 14.4% of the brewery’s electricity needs per year – equivalent to approximately 228 average households.

“Brewing is an energy intensive process. At the Pride… we can run 160,000 cans and bottles per hour across the four production lines. By investing in solar, we will increase our reliance on new renewable energy, reduce our carbon emissions further and free up more than a megawatt of demand from the national grid.”

Lion says that the Pride, which opened in 2010, wasn’t expressly designed for rooftop solar and so a significant structural assessment of the roof was undertaken to engineer the design to take the load of the 74,000-kilogram structure.

“Along with the sustainability benefits, it’s a smart commercial investment providing predictable electricity costs and a less than seven-year payback period,” says Baldie. “Adding solar electricity into the mix is a logical and exciting milestone for us. We are proud to have been carbon zero across the whole organisation since 2021, and we continue to explore ways to be more efficient and sustainable across everything we do.”