Brewer AB InBev, which owns well-known brands such as Budweiser, Beck's, Leffe and Corona, enters into an agreement with BayWa re, a provider of global renewable energy solutions, to the purchase of 100% green energy, which will be used to cover the needs of the production activities of the breweries in Italy and Western Europe. Soon all the beers of Ab InBev, headquarters in Belgium, produced in Europe will be produced with electricity from renewable sources.
The agreement, known as the Virtual Power Purchase Agreement (VPPA), with a term of ten years, concerns two solar parks which together boast an output of almost 200 megawatts, making this the largest pan-European solar energy deal in history, as AB InBev covers 14 breweries in Europe, with more than 50 brands produced and sold in 12 countries. Italy will also benefit from this agreement: all products will be purchased from certified breweries.
BayWa re will finance and develop two new photovoltaic plants in Spain, one of which will be called Budweiser Solar Farm, ensuring an energy requirement sufficient to annually power the equivalent of almost 670 homes. The new solar capacity is expected to be finalized by March 1, 2022, before the solar parks are actually operational.
Benoit Bronckart, the Italy CEO and South Europe BU President of Ab InBev, enthusiastically announced this collaboration with BayWa re, through which the capacity to produce solar energy in Europe will be increased and that “beers will be produced using only renewable energy”.
This maneuver demonstrates the company's commitment to making increasingly "green" choices and to contribute to the fight against climate change in the production of goods, as the CEO of BayWa re commented, Matthias Taft. The Western European countries covered by this agreement are Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, the Canary Islands, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Russia and the UK had already signed renewable energy deals.
