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Another wind-powered brewery
Brooklyn joins New Belgium in using windmills
Sept 19, 2003 - The Brooklyn Brewery will use wind generated power to run its plant and headquarters. The five-year wind power purchase represents the first brewery in the Eastern U.S. to convert to wind power. Colorado's New Belgium Brewery began using wind power in 1999.
Brooklyn Brewery is the first commercial building in New York City to convert 100% of its electric load to wind, according to the brewery. Brooklyn brews its beer in the Williamsburg section of the borough, and also has beer produced under contract by Matt Brewing. "At Brooklyn Brewery, we believe in corporate responsibility. We believe in being a good citizen in our community," said brewery president Steve Hindy. "A lot of people in the city don't realize you can do this. It does cost us more about 10 to 15 percent more, but I really do think it's the right thing to do and if more people sign up for it the price will come down." Brooklyn Brewery's commitment is equivalent to the reduction of approximately 335 thousand pounds of CO2, 1,500 pounds of sulfur dioxide and 500 pounds of nitrogen oxides that would be emitted into the atmosphere annually. This emission offset is the equivalent of not driving 290,000 miles or planting 22,000 trees each year. The windmills are in Madison County, N.Y., and belong to Community Energy Inc., which delivers wind-generated electricity to the New York state electric grid. Currently there's a controversial proposal to build a new power plant on Brooklyn's waterfront, just a few blocks away, a move facing widespread community opposition. "A power plant in that area is the wrong time and the wrong place and it's not that it's just that we don't want it in our back yards," said Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn borough president. "It's that we have alternatives and that's what Brooklyn is doing."
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