The Grapevine: Eco-Friendly Wineries in California
January 16, 2009 by editor
Filed under Technology, Wineries & Vineyards
Just how big is your carbon footprint? Most of us haven’t a clue. We recycle. We use our own shopping bags. Does it make a difference?
You bet your sweet zinfandel!
Fetzer Vineyards solar system
Fetzer Vineyards, of Mendocino, Calif., made an eco-friendly decision to switch to lightweight glass bottles in 2009. The decision to lose the weight, i.e. drop from a 20.3-ounce bottle to a 17-ounce bottle, will reduce Fetzer’s production of greenhouse gases by 14 percent, or 2,985 tons of carbon dioxide (after factoring in the energy required to produce and ship the heavier glass vs. the new version).
As we know, trees process carbon dioxide and release oxygen. The impact of Fetzer’s decision within the span of one calendar year is the environmental equivalent of planting 70,000 trees and growing them for 10 years. Three years later, the impact will be akin to planting 210,000 trees and letting them grow for 10 years.
The reduction in glass alone (2, 173 tons) eliminates more than 4 million new wine bottles going into circulation each calendar year. If you do your part and recycle the lightweight bottle, you will also reduce the equivalent of 5.9 lbs worth of carbon dioxide emissions per bottle.
But it is the generation of electricity that is the leading contributor to air pollution in the United States. Most generator plants burn fossil fuels; this dumps millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year.
Shafer Vineyards solar panels
So Fetzer went solar. Its clean energy program, a 901-kilowatt photovoltaic project positioned on the roof of the bottling facility and red barrel room in Hopland, Calif., generates more than a million kilowatt hours of energy a year, supplying them with 80 percent of the electricity needed to function each year.
By sourcing its energy this way, Fetzer has further reduced its carbon footprint by eliminating 960,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year. The impact is akin to taking 80 cars off the road for 12 months.
But Fetzer isn’t the only eco-conscious wine producer on the market. In 2003, Rodney Strong Vineyards, of California, put solar panels on the roof of its 100,000-square-foot barrel house. This reduced energy use by 35 percent and electrical costs by 40 percent. The solar project generates enough clean energy to power 800 homes and reduces their carbon footprint by eliminating more than 8,700 tons of greenhouse gas production over the next 25 years. Again, to use the tree analogy, they’ve done the equivalent of foresting 2,500 acres with trees.
Shafer Vineyards, of California, went 100 percent solar in 2004. Its project will have the air-purifying equivalent of planting 17,000 trees.
Constellation Brands rooftop solar installation in Gonzales, California
Domaine Carneros, also in California, went solar in 2003. The energy generated by the photovoltaic system on its Pinot Noir winery handles 40 percent of the facility’s electrical load. Frog’s Leap Winery generates 100 percent of its own electricity with solar power.
Constellation Wines, now the largest wine company in the world (representing such brands as Simi, Franciscan, Robert Mondavi Winery, Kim Crawford, Ruffino, Tintara, Mouton Cadet, Arbor Mist, Cooks and Vendange), is going solar also. Their project, currently under production, is projected to eliminate the release of 1.6 million pounds of carbon dioxide, 1,636 pounds of sulfur dioxide and 2,909 pounds of nitrogen oxide each year, the equivalent of taking 2,000 cars off the road for 12 months.
When the winery is not using its electricity, that clean energy will be routed to supply energy for a quarter of the 1,695 households in the town of Gonzales, California.
Kudos to Constellation and the rest of the earth-friendly bunch. We should all give them a toast (serving their own eco-friendly wines, of course), then recycle those empty bottles. Together, we can do a world of good.
Lisa Airey
The View
With Aid From the State, Californians Warm to Rooftop Solar Power
December 27, 2008 by editor
Filed under Featured, Solar News, Solar Programs
Rebates and new financing models spur adoption despite the recession.
At a time when many investors are sticking money in their mattresses, Californians are putting it on their roofs.
Applications for state rebates to install solar panels hit their highest level ever in December, one of the few bright spots in an otherwise gloomy economy.
Residents filed a record 1,215 applications seeking solar subsidies this month, according to the California Public Utilities Commission. That’s the best showing in the program’s 24-month history, and December isn’t even finished. More than 18,000 California homeowners and businesses have applied for rebates over the last two years. Although not everyone who files this paperwork actually ends up installing solar, the figures are viewed as a reliable barometer of future demand.
A record 133 megawatts of solar photovoltaics have been installed in California so far this year, even as the state’s economy has stumbled.
California Governor Schwarzenegger’s Green Challenge
California Governor Says He’ll Stick To Environmental Plans, Despite Economic Crisis
President-elect Obama is 30 days from office. For a window on his future, turn west for a moment to a chief executive who is already up to his neck in the nation’s troubles.
This month, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger warned of financial Armageddon, as California faced a potential $40 billion deficit that threatened jobs, roads, schools and public safety. At the same time, he’s pushing some of the world’s toughest environmental laws to make California a leader on climate change.
Wells Fargo Contributes $80,000 to GRID Alternatives
December 11, 2008 by admin
Filed under Green Collar
Supports Green Affordable Housing, Renewable Energy and Job Training
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 11, 2008 — Wells Fargo & Company contributed $80,000 to GRID Alternatives, a nonprofit that installs solar electricity systems for low-income homeowners, to expand its Solar Affordable Housing Program and build a model that can be replicated nationwide. The non-profit has installed over 200 solar electric systems for low-income homeowners that will generate $3.3 million in clean renewable power and reduce of greenhouse gas emissions by 10,000 tons a year.
California Strategies To Meet Climate Goals
Solar photovoltaic pumping installation on a California roof.
California air regulators this week are poised to adopt a global warming plan outlining how the state will cut its greenhouse gas emissions over the next 12 years. The Air Resources Board says emissions must be cut by nearly a third to meet the targets mandated in a 2006 law signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
If the plan is adopted, it will provide a broad outline for specific rules that state air regulators will consider in the coming years. The first requirements will take effect in 2012.
Here are some of the strategies for how California plans to cut emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, or roughly a third of current levels:
Governor Schwarzenegger Opens Governors’ Global Climate Summit
California Governor Schwarzenegger hosts the Governors' Global Climate Summit held in Los Angeles, Calif.
In Los Angeles today, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger welcomes more than 800 attendees from more than 50 states, provinces and countries to the Governors’ Global Climate Summit. Following the Governor’s remarks, a pre-recorded video message will air from President-Elect Barack Obama on global warming and supporting the states that have taken decisive action to address this urgent issue.
The Governors’ Summit brings together U.S. and international leaders to develop cooperative partnerships and promote collaborative actions needed to combat climate change. This forum also provides an opportunity for states and provinces to partner to reduce emissions, to grow their green economies and to influence the position their national governments take in the next global agreement on climate change.
California Assembly Bill 811 Signed Into Law
Assembly Bill 811 (AB 811), is an environmental law in California, signed into law by Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger on July 21, 2008. AB 811 was authored by Assemblyman Lloyd Levin.
AB 811 would authorize all cities and counties in California to designate areas within which willing property owners could enter into contractual assessments to finance the installation of distributed renewable energy generation, as well as energy efficiency improvements, that are permanently fixed to the property owner’s residential, commercial, industrial, or other real property. These financing arrangements would allow property owners to finance renewable generation and energy efficiency improvements through low-interest loans that would be repaid as an item on the property owner’s property tax bill. The contractual assessments could not be used to finance the purchase or installation of appliances that are not permanently fixed to the real property.
Assembly Bill 811 helps California municipalities accomplish the goals outlined by Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.
The passage of AB 811 makes it more imperative to provide a energy efficiency community program. AB 811 states: “This act is an urgency statute…”. Cities and counties can now: (1) Make energy-efficiency and renewable energy affordable for California citizens (2) Increase property values (3) Improve the efficiency and indoor air quality of residential & commercial properties (4) Reduce the burning of dirty fuels and hence, pollution (5) Lower greenhouse gas emissions (6) Empower constituents with the fiscal security of distributed energy.
California Assembly Bill No. 811
Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa Announces Big Solar Initiative
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announces a solar initiative that would create up to 400 green jobs over the next 3 years.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other municipal leaders unveiled a green energy initiative Tuesday by the city’s utility that they predict will create as many as 400 union jobs over the next three years to install and maintain solar panels on city buildings and other structures around Los Angeles.
Villaraigosa promoted the new effort as part
of a larger clean-growth strategy during an appearance atop a Los Angeles Convention Center parking garage with solar panels as a backdrop. He was flanked by five members of California’s congressional delegation, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-East Los Angeles).
Gov. Schwarzenegger Signs Landmark Legislation to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Joined by national and international dignitaries who have been leaders in the fight against global climate change, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed AB 32 by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles), California’s landmark bill that establishes a first-in-the-world comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to achieve real, quantifiable, cost-effective reductions of greenhouse gases.
“When I campaigned for governor three years ago, I said I wanted to make California No. 1 in the fight against global warming. This is something we owe our children and our grandchildren,” said Gov. Schwarzenegger at signing ceremonies in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
“Some have challenged whether AB 32 is good for businesses. I say unquestionably it is good for businesses. Not only large, well-established businesses, but small businesses that will harness their entrepreneurial spirit to help us achieve our climate goals.
