The ritual of popping a cork on a bottle of wine after a long day at work or before a weekend meal comes with many things. Your favorite corkscrew. Your favorite glassware. The feeling of stress leaving your body when you hear the cork pop, you pour the wine, and then inhale the captivating aromas. The indescribable satisfaction of the first sip. What that ritual probably doesn’t come with is the question in your mind: I wonder if this wine was made using solar energy?
Wine is often described as bottled poetry, a product of the sun, soil, and water, we don’t often think about the sun also powering the cellar that ferments and ages that poetry.
Thankfully, New York State vintners spend a great deal of time thinking about how they can leverage the power of the sun in the vineyard and cellar.
Today, more and more New York wineries are fueling their operations with the sun’s rays and reaping the benefits of lower energy bills. While sustainability is their primary inspiration, their solar-fueled operations come with the added bonus of being pretty good PR, too.
The New York wineries that have been using solar energy for years are sold on the alternative energy option, and they have experience and advice to pass on to those considering adding solar panels to the roofs of their buildings and to open space on their land.
The Benefits of Powering a Winery With Solar
“Most months utility bills are zero,” says Josh Wig, co-owner of Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars along Seneca Lake. It took a while to get there, though. The winery first put solar panels on a rooftop about 15 years ago. The benefits were significant, enough that Lamoreaux eventually added a second array in a field in 2016. Now the buy-in to solar energy meets 100% of the energy needs of the buildings and winemaking operations at Lamoreaux.
The demand for electrical power isn’t huge year-round, but during harvest when Wig needs to process the fruit, there’s a sharp increase in demand. Now the solar offsets even the energy demands during harvest.
Lamareaux has plans for a third array in the works so that it can become a net-generating station, producing more energy than it uses.
Source: newyorkwines.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-willhowecreative
Categories: New York, Crops, Fruits and Vegetables, Energy, Sustainable Agriculture