Budweiser’s 2019 Big Game commercial takes a powerful stance on the company’s dedication to the environment, declaring that 100% of its Budweiser beer production is now powered by renewable electricity.
The company took its commitment to sustainability one step further, announcing that it is supplying the city of Atlanta with enough renewable energy credits to offset the city’s energy consumption for six days.
This donation ensures that 100% of the electricity used to power Atlanta the week of the Big Game will be sourced from clean, renewable energy at Enel Green Power’s Thunder Ranch wind farm in Oklahoma.
Our partnership with Anheuser-Busch, the brewers of Budweiser
Enel Green Power (EGP) and Anheuser-Busch began our partnership in 2017 when we signed a long-term Purchase Power Agreement (PPA), a contract that defines the commercial terms for the sale of electricity.
PPAs can come in all shapes and sizes, and Anheuser-Busch’s opted to go with a virtual PPA, whereby they purchase the wind power that EGP’s Thunder Ranch provides to the grid to replace energy from non-renewable sources.
Through the PPA, Anheuser-Busch is purchasing about 600 GWh of renewable energy per year from a 152.5 MW portion of Enel Green Power’s Thunder Ranch wind farm: enough to cover 50% of the company’s total purchased electricity and enough to brew about 20 billion 12 oz. servings of beer each year.
By switching to a renewable energy source, Anheuser-Busch is helping to avoid 400,000 tons of CO2 emissions each year, equivalent to taking 85,000 cars off the road.
How this year’s Big Game will be the most sustainable in history
Power comes to the grid from many sources, including coal, natural gas, nuclear, and renewables.
These different sources of energy blend together once on the grid—meaning that the power coming into your house is a rarely provided through one source. Instead it’s a mix of many sources.
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are energy commodities equivalent to a certain amount of electricity generated from renewable sources.
Businesses can use RECs to certify their carbon reductions from a particular project, and also verify that they are responsible for bringing renewable energy onto a grid, often called additionality.
Anheuser-Busch has an overabundance of RECs from EGP and has opted to donate some of them to offset the power demand in the City of Atlanta for the week of the National Football League Championship.
While the power in Atlanta won’t come directly from EGP’s wind farm, the Thunder Ranch wind farm is “replacing” the power consumed for the Big Game.
Enel Green Power’s Thunder Ranch wind farm
Located in Garfield, Kay and Noble Counties, Oklahoma, EGP’s Thunder Ranch wind farm entered into operation at the end of 2017.
It has an overall capacity of 298 MW, generating about 1,100 GWh per year: enough energy to power about 90,000 U.S. households.
The clean energy it generates helps to avoid 790,000 tons of CO2 emissions each year.
Beyond its positive contribution to the environment, the Thunder Ranch wind farm has had a strong economic impact on the region through more than 30 million dollars of direct revenue to the county in property taxes and 2.4 million dollars in payments to landowners each year.