07/04/08 From Wine To Renewables

From Wine To Renewables. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. I have to admit, I couldn't really put the pieces of this story together at first. Renewable energy and a wine making operation. But as I went along, it made complete sense. Melissa Burr, winemaker for Stoller Vineyards in Dayton, Oregon says they found out it was a natural starting with the winery building. BURR: It's the first winery in the United States that's fully LEED certified at the gold level and LEED is Leaders In Energy and Environmental Design acronym and it's a certification for buildings, a lot of commercial buildings obtain this and what you are focusing on is having a building that's overall really sustainable and uses as little energy as possible. Stoller Vineyards began in 1995 and due to good southern exposure is a great area for growing grapes. That southern exposure lends itself to solar power. BURR: Here at Stoller Vineyards we've got a 46 kilowatt system set up here on the south side of our roof, 244 panels and it generates on average about 40% of our overall energy requirements through a years cycle. We're just now getting credited back kilowatt hours through PG&E. In addition to generating some of their own power Burr says that are utilizing some other methods to help minimize their impact. BURR: We're working with a dozen or so other wineries right now. We're looking as a collective at our overall carbon footprints as wineries and what that's doing is studying everything that we do from the vineyard to the bottle with our products and looking at all different ways we can carve out savings of energy and maybe even generate some of our own if possible. They are examining all the aspects of wine production from what kind of fuel they use to minimizing travel. Besides taking the renewable bull by the horns, Burr says that Stoller Vineyards also makes a great bottle of wine. BURR: Yea, that's very important to sustainability also is making a great bottle of wine and Oregon is a great place to do that with out climate and the varietals we can grow here. Oregon has been taking charge of renewable energy with a number of different programs that Burr says they are taking advantage of. BURR: We are working directly with legislation. They're actually helping lead this whole carbon neutral footprint. For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network. www.harvestcleanenergy.org