OB Beer Completes Solar Power Facility Installation at Gwangju Plant

Expected Annual Carbon Reduction Effect of Approximately 1709 Tons

OB Beer has completed preparations to produce beer using solar energy for the first time in the alcoholic beverage industry and has officially launched its efforts to achieve ‘RE100 (Renewable Energy 100).’

(From left) Seokhwan Kim, Vice President of Purchasing at OB Beer; Jabum Koo, Senior Vice President of Policy and Public Relations at OB Beer; Hajun Bae, President of OB Beer; Hyunbin Lee, CEO of Kepco ES; Weichun Pang, Vice President of Production at OB Beer; Eun Heo, CEO of Ionus; and Woochun Yang, Gwangju Plant Manager at OB Beer, are taking a commemorative photo after the completion ceremony of the solar panel installation at the OB Beer Gwangju Plant.
[Photo by OB Beer]

On the morning of the 28th, OB Beer held a ‘RE100 Solar Panel Installation Completion Ceremony’ at its production plant located in Gwangju Metropolitan City and announced on the 29th that it has started producing beer using solar energy.

OB Beer is participating in RE100, which replaces 100% of the electricity used by companies with renewable energy, and is promoting the transition to renewable energy by installing solar panels at its production plants as one of the implementation measures. In particular, building self-consumption power generation facilities and directly using self-generated renewable energy is the first case in the alcoholic beverage industry.

The solar panels installed at the Gwangju plant have a total capacity of 2.6 megawatts (MW), and the annual electricity production capacity reaches 3.7 gigawatt-hours (GWh). This amount can replace about 11% of the Gwangju plant’s electricity consumption. By replacing this electricity with solar energy, the Gwangju plant can reduce approximately 1,709 tons of carbon emissions annually. Over the expected 30-year lifespan of the power generation facilities, it is anticipated that more than 49,000 tons of carbon dioxide will be reduced.

Starting with the Gwangju plant, OB Beer plans to complete the installation of solar panels at the Icheon and Cheongju plants by the first quarter of next year. Once the solar power generation facilities are completed at the three production plants, they will produce about 10 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of solar power annually, which is expected to replace 11% of the total electricity used by OB Beer.

Bae Hajun, CEO of OB Beer, said, “The completion of the solar facilities at the Gwangju plant is expected to be a stepping stone for OB Beer to convert 100% of its electricity use to renewable energy by 2025,” adding, “As a leading ESG company in the alcoholic beverage industry, we will not only swiftly implement plans to supply renewable energy but also strive to advance eco-friendly management and actively respond to the climate crisis.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.