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Carbon Neutral
Coffee Roasting:

For a company to be carbon neutral, the sum of its activities in the world must not add to the total carbon in the environment. Solar Roast Coffee works to be carbon neutral in two ways: we use our specially constructed solar coffee roasters when the sun is shining, and we purchase carbon offset “green tags” during times of cloudy weather.

Solar Coffee Roasters

Solar Roast uses the only commercial solar-thermal coffee roasters in the world! Heat energy from sunlight is used to replace the natural gas burner found in an ordinary coffee roaster. The newest solar coffee roaster uses a 35 foot wide mirrored reflector to focus the sun’s rays to a focal point (like using a very large magnifying glass in the sun).

A receiver at the focal point heats air to roughly 900 degrees Fahrenheit. The air is then blown through an insulated pipe into the special drum-roaster. The green (un-roasted) coffee beans are heated to a temperature of between 400˚ and 550˚ Fahrenheit, and the coffee is allowed to roast for 15 to 25 minutes per batch.

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All of the electrical processes within the roaster are powered by an array of photovoltaic solar panels, which produce around one thousand watts of power.

Images of our previous roasters can be found here.

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