New Zealand Celsias

Vine prunings have been given a new lease of life thanks to an innovative recycling approach by a Kiwi winery. Yealands Estate is having a purpose-built boiler constructed that will turn vine prunings into an energy source for the winery. The initiative is set to save Yealand’s 22 tonnes of LPG a year, virtually reducing its total carbon footprint for LPG to zero.

Owner and founder Peter Yealands says the Bio-Mass Boiler will be specially designed to heat the winery’s water and glycol - a liquid that is pumped into ‘jackets’ around fermentation tanks to heat or cool the wine.

Previously composted and used as mulch, 10 percent of the vine prunings will be baled after each vintage, ready and waiting to be placed into the boiler and burnt. The subsequent heat energy will be trapped and used to heat the water and glycol.  The remainder of the prunings will continue to be used as mulch.

“The wine-making business is hugely energy intensive, and heating and cooling wine accounts for roughly 85 percent of the winery’s total energy consumption. This new initiative is evidence that sustainable wine production is not only possible, it is commercially viable,” says Yealands.

“Our mission is to become New Zealand’s most sustainable winery and this is just another step in achieving that goal.”

Thanks to funding from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), the Yealands Estate Bio-Mass Boiler is under construction in the US and will be ready to go by the end of the year. 

Other environmental initiatives employed by the wine estate include solar panels, insulated tanks, wind-powered electricity generators, grazing miniature babydoll sheep as an alternative to tractor mowing, harvesting storm water to irrigate the vineyards around the winery and developing more than 20 wetland areas to preserve native species and attract native birds.

Another alcohol-related initiative was announced last week by UK brewery Adnams who will convert the waste associated with beer production into renewable energy (biomethane), using an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant. Adnmas expects the plant will produce enough renewable gas to power the Adnams brewery and run its fleet of lorries, while still leaving up to 60 percent of the output for injection into the UK’s National Grid. More here.

 Image: Flickr -  gfpeck