Fresh Roasted Coffee's Sustainability Report - November 2025
Welcome back to Fresh Roasted Coffee's monthly Sustainability Report!
November brought a noticeable shift in Pennsylvania weather marked with shorter days, heavier cloud cover, and the first long stretch of true winter gloom. While our solar production slowed accordingly, this month offered a perfect example of why we built our renewable energy strategy the way we did: realistic, data-driven, and intentionally designed around the strengths and limitations of our region.
Here’s a closer look at how November shaped up.
Powering Sustainability: The Winter Solar Slowdown
As expected for late fall in Pennsylvania, November delivered significantly fewer hours of direct sunlight compared to the peak production months we see in summer and early fall. Our array produced 35.531 MWh of renewable electricity: a meaningful contribution even as daylight hours shrink.This energy production amounted to about 25 U.S. tons of CO2 emissions avoided.
For comparison, 35.531 MWh of energy would
- power 35 average U.S. homes for a month (assuming ~899 kWh per home/month) US EPA
- brew 355,000 cups of coffee (assuming 100Wh per brew on a standard machine) Silicon Valley Power
We used the EPA’s 2022 national average emissions factor of ~1405 lbs CO₂ per MWh, to determine that our facility avoided 25.0 U.S. tons of CO₂ emissions by using a renewable energy source for power.
While the decrease aligns with seasonal patterns, it’s still a valuable reminder of the realities of solar in northern climates. Shorter days and dense cloud cover reduce output, but they also reinforce why our grid-tied system is so important to our energy strategy.
Even during low-production months, the grid connection ensures:
consistent, reliable power for roasting and packaging
seamless offsetting of solar production during peak months
continuous operation 24/7, even when sunlight is limited
the ability to feed excess electricity back to the grid when production exceeds our immediate usage
This flexibility is essential for a manufacturing facility that never truly stops moving.
Cleaner Roasting: How'd We Stack Up?
Fresh Roasted Coffee roasted about 190,899.77 pounds of coffee across our Loring Smart Roasters in November.
Compared to a traditional drum roaster with a thermal oxidizer, our Loring system reduces roasting-related emissions by roughly 80%. This month alone, that efficiency prevented 12.01 U.S. tons of CO₂ from being released.
When combined with our solar offset, November’s total emissions avoided came to 37.01 U.S. tons of CO2 avoided.
For comparison, that equals
Understanding the Seasonal Solar Drop
Pennsylvania’s late-fall and winter months regularly produce some of the lowest solar irradiance values in the country. In November, we experienced:
shorter daylight windows
heavier and more frequent cloud cover
lower sun angles
increased atmospheric moisture
This is why we never designed our energy system with the expectation of full winter self-sufficiency. Instead, we built a system optimized for annualized performance: strong over the course of a year, even if individual months fluctuate dramatically.
One Full Year Of Solar Procution: What We Learned
Our solar array, a 753.25 kW roof-mounted, grid-tied system made up of 1,310 bifacial panels, has now completed its first full year of operation.
At installation, the system was modeled to generate approximately 900,000 kWh annually. We finished the year at 864,676 kWh, or roughly 96% of the modeled projection. We were thrilled with this result and have begun excitedly digging into these numbers to determine the whys and hows of our energy production and what we might do to further improve our efficiency in the year to come.
Where production dipped:
April-June delivered significantly lower-than-average irradiance
extended cloud cover and rainfall reduced daily output
these three months alone account for most of the annual variance
Where production exceeded expectations:
August through October consistently outperformed the modeled projection
clearer skies and dry conditions boosted bifacial gain
sun exposure reflected off our bright roof membrane improved efficiency
Why the grid-tied system matters:
Our annual data reaffirms exactly why grid-tying was the right choice for our location. PA winters are simply not compatible with year-round standalone solar generation. A grid-tied approach allows us to:
bank excess solar production during high-output months
draw power seamlessly during low-output periods
maximize the value of every kilowatt generated
maintain consistent operations regardless of weather patterns
This stability is essential for a facility that roasts, packs, ships, and fulfills orders every day of the year.
Looking Ahead
With year one behind us, we’re now able to evaluate our solar system with real performance data, not just models. This will guide how we:
- assess long-term bifacial gain
- evaluate seasonal patterns
- benchmark year-over-year improvements
- make decisions about future expansion
- explore additional energy-efficiency upgrades
Each month adds another data point to a much bigger picture: a roasting facility that continues to get cleaner, more efficient, and more transparent in how it operates.
Thanks for following along on this journey — we’ll keep raising the bar, one batch and one beam of sunlight at a time.
Leave a comment