Gramona – Increasing self-sufficiency in renewable energies
Increasing self-sufficiency in renewable energies
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
To its biodynamic viticulture and geo-thermal installation, Gramona added a solar photovoltaic installation for electric self-consumption, which allows to generate electricity in a local and sustainable way for the consumption of the winery, thus reducing the consumption of electricity from the grid and the high-power points of the power grid.
The Batlle Winery, constructed in 2001, represents Gramona’s family commitment to respecting the countryside and using renewable energies. It is located in the middle of the vineyards, and everything that can be seen of the building from the outside is only one third of its total. The rest is underground, going down to around eight meters. Thanks to its bioclimatic architecture, Gramona is reducing its environmental impact as well reducing its energy consumption. The winery’s natural temperature is constantly low – ideal conditions for producing wine.
The family’s work in this respect has been endorsed by the annual renewal of the ISO 14000 certification for environmental management, which was first obtained in 2011 and maintained since then through the family’s tireless work.
SUSTAINABLE TARGET
Increase self-sufficiency in renewable energies
PARTNERS
REASON WHY/MOTIVATION/BACKGROUND
The self-consumption in photovoltaics allows us to make use of a net and renewable energy, and to be more self-sufficient. In addition, the economic savings are important, making us more competitive.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
We started with renewable energies in 2012, when we changed our standard cooling system to a geothermal system: it provided us with a higher efficiency as the refrigeration of heating pumps is done by water cooled underground (14ºC) when before it was cooled by air (around 30ºC).
Three years later, we focused on producing our own energy. In 2015 we installed 49 kWp of solar panels to produce around 16% of electricity we need for our cellar. We have not stopped there, and in 2019 we have increased the surface of solar panels. Now we have more than 100 kWp installed in 3 different buildings, allowing us to self-produce more than 30% of our needs. The rest of the electricity is bought to a green company, that guarantees to us that the electricity we buy is produced by renewable energies. Then, we can certify that 100% of the electricity used in Gramona comes from renewables.
- The photovoltaic installation has a power of 49 kW, it consists of 196 panels of 250 Wp Energy Peak model of the brand REC Solar, and 2 inverter equipments, model Symo 20 of the Fronius brand. The solar panels have been installed coplanar to the main roof, by means of a system of aluminum subjection system model CSdirect of the company CSolar.
- The REC solar panels have an efficiency of 15.5 and a linear guarantee of the nominal power of 25 years. The energy payback period that the panels required to panels needed to be manufactured is only 1 year.
The photovoltaic installation has involved an investment of approximately investment of approximately 73.500 €, and it allows to obtain a saving of more than 10.000 € per year in electricity consumption from the grid.
On the other hand, we have changed several machines like bottling and labeling lines, air compressors, standard lights to LED, and we have reduced the consumption of energy by more than 40% per bottle produced.
The return on investment, taking into account an annual increase in the price of the electricity price of the of 3.5%, is 6.6 years. The return on investment (IRR) over 25 years is 16.3%, and the accumulated return over 25 years is 378,515.
For the monitoring and control of the installation, a Solar-Log equipment has been used.
The photovoltaic installation has been dimensioned according to the winery’s annual hourly consumption, in order to avoid the generation of surpluses of the photovoltaic production.
This way and taking into account the seasonality of consumption and the fact that the photovoltaic self-consumption is direct (without accumulation), an annual saving in the consumption of electricity from the grid of 15% is achieved. It is possible to improve this percentage of savings by increasing the photovoltaic power and installing batteries to save the photovoltaic surplus photovoltaic electricity. These batteries are becoming more and more economical.
Typical diagram of operation:
BENEFITS/ACHIEVEMENTS
GRAMONA reduced its electricity consumption from the grid by 30%, thanks to photovoltaic self-consumption.
NEXT STEPS
60,000 Kwh reduction in energy consumption from the electricity grid:
- Monitoring of consumption by lines, to detect deviations or possible improvements.
- Installation of a solar photovoltaic generation system in the new farm building.
- Installation of solar thermal panels and 300 L storage tank for DHW preheating in the production areas.
- Installation of 50.6 kWp of solar photovoltaic, expanding the current installation.