Cline Cellars, a family-owned winery in the Carneros district of Sonoma Valley, recently made the switch to solar power, providing an annual estimated savings of $92,000. With a goal to be energy independent, thus creating predictable energy and costs, Cline hired SolarCraft Services, Inc. of Novato, California to design and build the large commercial solar electric system. The system now provides 100 percent of the winery's annual electricity consumption for its production facility.

 

"There were a lot of reasons we made the switch to solar power, but probably the main reason was to become less dependent upon PG&E as power providers," Fred Cline, owner of Cline Cellars, said.

 

The system is a custom-engineered, aluminum mounting structure that works well with the structural capacity of the winery's steel warehouse and fermentation buildings. The winery's roof spans 50,000 square feet and supports nearly 2,000 Sharp 208 watt solar panels, which generates 411 kilowatts at peak.

 

Cline said that the solar power system has exceeded his expectations. "The amount of power being generated has been incredible, even with the fog and in the winter," he continued. "The performance has been better than expected, even for SolarCraft. They are very happy with what is being produced."

 

The system provides enough electricity to completely eliminate expensive peak-period usage, while also selling excess power back to the local utility company for credit. Bill Stewart, co-founder and owner of SolarCraft, said that in addition to powering 100 percent of the winery's annual electricity consumption, that the system was most recently exporting about 150,000 watts of power above and beyond what the site was using. "By my quick calculations, this is about what 30 average homes would be drawing on a weekday afternoon," Stewart said. Utility companies will buy excess power at peak rates, and then the customer can use the credits during nights and winter when less energy is being generated.

 

Financial incentives for solar electric systems include a federal tax credit. Qualified solar energy systems placed in service during 2006 and 2007 are eligible for a federal tax credit of 30 percent of the owner's out-of-pocket cost. "Strictly from a financial point of view, it makes a lot of sense between the rebate and tax credit," said Cline. While residential systems credit is capped off at $2,000, commercial systems, such as the system at Cline, has no cap on the amount of credit they can receive. "We haven't gone through the harvest yet, but so far we have an $8,000 credit," he continued.

 

The solar modules on the panels are made from the same material used to produce computer chips. The modules should be cleaned twice a year; though, if they were never cleaned it would only reduce efficiency 8-10 percent. The modules are warranted for 25 years, however Stewart says that they are expected to last well over 30 years. "Over time the solar panels will gradually produce less and less energy, but even after 25 years, they will still roughly have a 95 percent capacity power output," he said.

 

In addition to the commercial solar electric system, Cline installed energy-saving lights and an insulating urethane foam roof that reduces cooling costs in the summer by up to 30 percent. SolarCraft has also completely upgraded the winery's electrical infrastructure to support the increased capacity of power.

 

Cline is the fourth largest solar winery in California, with the largest being Fetzer Vineyards with a 901-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) system, followed by Rodney Strong Vineyards with a 766-kilowatt system, and St. Francis with a  457 KW system.