Minnesota-based Miller Milling Co. will expand its solar capacity to 2 MW at its flour mill in Fresno, California.
Miller’s first solar power on-site system, totaling 1.01 MW, was built and put into operation in 2017. The project involved the installation of 2,340 solar panels required for the project on 5 acres located adjacent to the mill.
The new array will add another 1.01 MW of direct-current capacity, together generating close to 33 percent of the mill’s total electrical demand, the company said.
“The use of renewable energy is supportive of a primary sustainability goal of Miller Milling which is to reduce our overall CO2 emissions. Our targets of 50% reduction of CO2 emissions (from 2013 baseline) by 2030 and zero emissions by 2050 are aggressive but achievable via projects like this and further investment into renewable energy options.”
Miller Milling Co. is owned by the Japan-based Nisshin Seifun Group. In 2021, Miller Milling enrolled the facility in the US EPA Energy Star Challenge for Industry, which challenges industrial sites to reduce their energy intensity by 10% within a five-year period from enrolling.
The company said it anticipates the Freson site will accomplish this goal by 2024 when the additional solar production is fully operational.
“This accomplishment will make the Fresno facility the only US-based flour mill to achieve the USEPA Challenge,” the company said. “We are proud that we will be joining many of our baking customers who have already achieved the challenge.
The company also is utilizing regenerative agriculture practices to lower the carbon and other environmental footprints, it said.
