River Horse in running for best solar-powered brewery

River Horse Brewing Co. in Ewing has been cited by solar lobby Solar United Neighbors as one of the best solar-powered breweries in the country, and is in the running for the No. 1 spot.

The 2018 Brews from the Sun Competition recognizes 40 breweries from across the U.S. for their use of solar power in the brewing of their beer. River Horse is the only New Jersey brewery recognized.

“What inspired the competition is that we work across the country helping people go solar. We’ve worked with a number of organizations and groups and noticed that breweries were one of the groups that have taken to solar and found it to be a benefit to their business,” said Ben Delman, communication director at Washington, D.C.-based Solar United Neighbors. “We wanted to highlight the connection between brewery and solar and build greater attention to solar in general, and we thought it would be a great op to do so.”

River Horse has used solar power to brew its beer since 2010, when it moved from its original location in Lambertville to a building in Ewing with solar power already installed.

“Reducing both our carbon footprint and energy savings really made the location too good to pass up,” reads the brewery’s website. “We have seen a nice offset in our electricity bills.”

The competition ends on Saturday. So far, River Horse has 57 of the 7,595 votes casted. The two breweries at the top of the list each have over 1,500 each. The winner takes home an award honoring their commitment to solar and a print ad promoting the brewery in quarterly magazine BeerAdvocate.

River Horse and Solar United Neighbors are holding a happy hour from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday in the brewery’s Ewing taproom. The event is free and open to the public.

River Horse was not available for comment at press time.