Christina Galitsky, EETD-LBNL; Anthony Radspieler Jr., EETD-LBNL; Ernst Worrel, Ecofys

Contact: Christina Galitsky, (510) 486-5137, cgalitsky@lbl.gov

Role In The Energy-Water Nexus

The BEST (Benchmarking and Energy and Water Savings Tool) Winery is a computer-based tool and a handbook designed to provide benchmarking for energy and water use in wineries and identify cost-saving energy and water conservation and efficiency improvements.

A lot of the electricity used in winemaking goes to refrigeration for cooling and cold storage, while the rest is mainly compressed air, hot water or electricity for pumping and the bottling line motors. Cleaning barrels and equipment requires hot water, and so does heating red wine ferments and yeast generator tanks. As with other commercial facilities, enclosed areas for storage and processing require lighting, and many such areas are electrically cooled.

Wineries are also water-intensive enterprises. Their major water use areas are in the fermentation tanks, barrel washing, barrel soaking, bottling line, cellars, and crush pad. Many wineries have begun to use treated wastewater to irrigate vineyards or for landscaping, or they may use it for frost and fire protection or dust abatement.

Research Objectives

The overall objective BEST Winery is identify and to encourage the adoption of energy and water conservation in the wine industry to use less energy and water in the making and bottling of wine. Current average water use is around 5 gallons of water per gallon of wine bottled.

Approach

BEST Winery compares the performance of a target winery to a similar reference winery. The reference winery is very efficient, using state-of-the-art commercially available energy and water control technologies.

In the benchmarking process, either the energy or water performance of an individual plant is compared to a plant that represents “standard” or “optimal” performance, or the energy or water performance of a number of plants are compared to each other.

Benchmarking in BEST Winery compares an individual winery to a similar hypothetical optimal winery using energy intensity (energy use per unit of output) as its unit of measurement. BEST Winery applies to a wide range of facilities and compensates for differences in production.

Accomplishments

The BEST Winery (http://best-winery.lbl.gov) software tool and report is titled “BEST Winery Guidebook: Benchmarking and Energy and Water Savings Tool for the Wine Industry," by Christina Galitsky, Ernst Worrell and Anthony Radspieler of Berkeley Lab, and Patrick Healy and Susanne Zechiel of Fetzer Vineyards.

Three free training workshops were held in May 2005 for California wineries in Hopland, Sonoma, Paso Robles with the support of Pacific Gas & Electric.

Significance of Findings

The wine-making business is a significant in the state of California with 1,100 wineries that produce more than 500 million gallons per year, contributing about $33 billion to the California economy. In 2000, California produced 565 million gallons, representing almost 92 percent of all the wine produced in the United States.

Energy and water costs have increased rapidly for wineries located in California and this has made energy and water efficiency improvement an essential part of the business. LBNL’s experience is that more than any other industry, winemakers have started to implement sustainable practices in viniculture and in their wineries.

Related Publications

Christina Galitsky, Anthony Radspieler, Ernst Worrell “Benchmarking and Self-Assessment with an Application for the Wine Industry”, July 2005 in Proceedings of the 2005 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry, West Point, NY July 19-22, 2005

Link to description on LBNL website:
www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/EETD-BEST-winery.html

Acknowledgements

The BEST Winery was developed by LBNL and Fetzer Winery and funded by CEC’s Food Industry Energy Research (FIER) as part of the Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program. PG&E will also provide information on its financial support programs for improving energy efficiency in the state’s wineries.