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Napa Winery Installs 170 kW Solar Energy Power Station
San Rafael CA (SPX) Jan 26, 2007 SPG Solar has commissioned Phase II of the 170 kilowatt commercial photovoltaic (solar energy) system for the Grgich Hills winery in Napa Valley, California. Together Phase I, completed in 2005, and Phase II of the Grgich Hills PV installation will produce 170.08 kilowatts DC of electricity during peak production hours. With the completion of Phase II, the PV system is expected to meet 100% of the winery's actual energy needs. The system will pay for itself within five years. SPG Solar will appear at the wine industry's premier showcase, the Unified WineGrape Symposium, in booth 2405 January 24-25, 2007 at the Sacramento Convention Center in Sacramento, CA. SPG Solar is an expert provider of solar energy systems for wineries and vineyards, meeting their seasonal needs with clean renewable energy generated on-site. SPG has designed and installed PV systems for numerous wineries and wine industry businesses, for a cumulative 1.9 MW of power. The solar energy system at Grgich Hills is integrated with the winery's philosophy to produce the most natural wine possible. Grgich Hills owns the largest biodynamic vineyards in the United States - all 366 acres in Napa are biodynamically farmed. All the vineyards are also certified organic. "It was an economic and philosophical decision to install a solar energy system at Grgich Hills," said Assistant Winemaker Kevin Vecchiarelli. "We have a commitment to renewable resources, and put a lot of effort into creating a sustainable farming culture that benefits the land we use as well as the wine that we make. In creating a 100% self-sustaining winery, we wanted renewable energy to complete the cycle, and that's what solar provides for us." "We are proud to have engineered and constructed this high performance solar system that over 25 years will have reduced over 1,091,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions; equal to saving 425 acres of rainforest or powering 1,150 homes for that same duration," said Dan Thompson, president and CEO of SPG Solar, Inc. The PV system produces excess energy in the winter, when the vines are dormant and the winery's energy use is lowest. The excess flows back to the power grid of the local utility, PG&E, for credit in a process called net metering. The winery electric meter runs backwards on highly productive sunny winter days. Grgich taps into this utility credit during the summer grape-crush months when winery energy use is at its peak.
System Specifications SPG Solar constructed the Grgich Hills system in two phases. Phase I consists of 192 Kyocera KC 190GT panels mounted on the corrugated steel roof of the wine storage area, feeding DC power into a Xantrex 45 kW inverter. Phase II is constructed of 668 Kyocera KC 200GT panels mounted on the red roof tiles of the winery and tasting room, feeding into a Satcon 100 kW inverter. The Grgich Hills system is monitored live by SPG Solar's proprietary Sunspot� monitoring system, showing how much energy the PV panels are producing throughout the day. Visitors to Grgich Hills can view in real time the amount of energy being produced by the solar system at an interactive touchscreen kiosk set up by SPG Solar in the tasting room. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Grgich Hills SPG Solar Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com Our Polluted World and Cleaning It Up China News From SinoDaily.com Global Trade News The Economy All About Solar Energy at SolarDaily.com Civil Nuclear Energy Science, Technology and News All About Solar Energy at SolarDaily.com
South Jersey Industries Introduces Solar Electricity
Folsom NJ (SPX) Jan 23, 2007South Jersey Energy Service Plus (SJESP), a subsidiary of South Jersey Industries, has announced that it is now offering the installation of solar electric systems for home and commercial business owners throughout South Jersey. Solar electric systems use sunlight to generate electricity with no fossil fuels or emissions. |
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