Wine industry tastes a clean energy future

The high Australian dollar isn’t the only challenge the Australian wine industry is facing at the moment. Consumers are increasingly demonstrating a preference for products that have minimal environmental impact.

To meet these challenges, many wine producers are implementing measures to reduce energy costs and decrease carbon emissions. As well as meeting consumer demand, these measures are helping companies remain competitive in the global market.

However, these measures often don’t come cheap. While it’s true that you need to spend money to make money, the high costs of upgrading to improve sustainability can deter many producers. Fortunately, grants are available through the Australian Government’s Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment Program.

Brokenwood Wines in the NSW Hunter Valley took advantage of the program to reduce energy costs across its manufacturing process.

“We particularly wanted to cut the company’s refrigeration costs, which account for 66% of our overall energy use,” said Lorrae Richardson, Brokenwood’s Laboratory Assistant and Environmental Coordinator. “But it’s been hard to justify large capital expenditure in the current economic and competitive environment.”

Brokenwood applied for, and received, a $262,747 grant from the Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment Program to undertake a suite of energy-saving measures, including upgrading to a more efficient refrigeration unit and replacing halogen lighting with induction lights.

These changes will save the company around $90,000 a year in running costs, reducing its annual electricity use by 60%. With these savings, Brokenwood can reduce the cost of its export wines by 10% to remain competitive on an international scale.

Like Brokenwood, Naturaliste Vintners wanted to reduce energy costs at its state-of-the-art contract winemaking facility in Margaret River.

“Consumers are demanding wines that are produced with a greater focus on the environment and at a lower cost,” Bruce Dukes, Director and Senior Winemaker at Naturaliste Vintners, said. “Our clients operate in very competitive markets and we have been working to improve our production processes to meet their needs.”

A $119,047 grant will help Naturaliste Vintners insulate 59 stainless steel wine tanks to reduce temperature fluctuations, therefore reducing energy use to chill or heat wines. The company will also change two refrigeration units from the older CFC refrigerant with high greenhouse gas emissions to hydrocarbon refrigerants which have a low environmental impact and use less electricity.

This project will reduce Naturaliste’s energy costs and carbon emissions by an estimated 40%.

Tasmanian wine producer Stefano Lubiana Wines has found wine maturation to be an expensive and energy-intensive process. The company is installing a new $600,000 underground barrel maturation facility to help reduce the environmental impact of this process.

Assisted by a $100,000 grant from the Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment Program, the facility will require almost no electricity to run and will reduce the winery’s carbon emissions intensity by 55%.

“Improving our barrel maturation is an important step in increasing the quality of our product,” said Monique Lubiana, General Manager at Stefano Lubiana Wines. “Our new facility achieves that goal and helps reduce our storage costs and environmental impact.”

The winery will also link its underground facility to its cellar door as well as showcasing its biodynamic processes to show visitors how wine is produced in an environmentally sustainable way.

The Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment Program is part of the $1.2 billion Clean Technology Program. It provides incentives for manufacturing businesses in the food and foundries sectors to invest in energy efficiency and reduce their carbon emissions.

The Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment Program will award a total of $200 million in grants until 2016-17. Applicants must demonstrate their ability to undertake the proposed project and show how it will maintain or improve their business’s competitiveness.