A solar panel installation at North Carolina’s RayLen Vineyards & Vinery cut the site’s energy bills nearly in half; the winery sells some energy to the utility company.

Mocksville, N.C. -- RayLen Vineyards & Winery recently threw the switch on what is believed to be the first winery solar installation in the state. Although in recent years dozens of West Coast wineries have taken advantage of state and federal incentives to install solar arrays, to date the practice has been less common in other winegrowing regions.

But electricity costs keep rising -- substantially in many locales -- and wineries use many, many kilowatts of electricity to run everything from grape stemmers and presses to refrigerated tanks. Tapping solar energy not only can hold down utility bills, but as a source of clean, infinitely renewable energy, it also conveys legitimate green bragging rights to those who employ it.

Options are expanding, as research and product development improves the choices available. This past summer, RayLen installed 104 100-watt solar panels -- enough to power everything from pumps to its office lights.

According to Steve Shepard, winemaker and general manager at RayLen, going solar was a win-win proposition. “With the way things are going with the environment, solar power is a good idea. Energy is getting expensive, and there are a number of government programs at both the state and federal level that give tax credits.”

In August, Southern Energy Management began to install the 104 100-watt thin-film panels on open ground near the vineyard. SEM surveyed the site to determine the proper positioning of the panels to maximize exposure to the sun unimpeded by shadows from either buildings or the vineyard.

Built in two arrays of 52 panels, each group is oriented to solar south. The panels sit within framing that is welded and bolted to poles and slopes upward from about 2 to 3 feet off the ground in front to about 8 feet in back. Individual panels measure 1.4 meters square, and the total installation occupies about one-twentieth of an acre.
 
RayLen turned on its solar power in mid-September. The power produced is sold back to their local power company, Duke Energy. In return, the winery receives refunds from both the power company and the government.

“Our thin-film panels provide about 25% of what the winery uses in power,” Shepard reported. “But because we sell the power back to the power company, we can take advantage of incentive-based programs that have basically cut our energy costs in half.” RayLen, which produces about 10,000 cases of wine per year, already is planning another solar panel installation to double its solar capacity.

The solar panels were made by Sencera International Corp., a manufacturer of thin-film solar panels in nearby Charlotte, N.C. Sencera, which has made plasma processing equipment since 2003, devised new equipment specifically designed to make thin-film solar panels.

Sencera CEO Rusty Jewett told Wines & Vines that creating purpose-built tools for their manufacturing process allows Sencera to reduce the cost of the thin-film panels substantially in comparison to other solar panels. In addition, the thin-film technology uses only one-600th the amount of silicon as a comparable silicon wafer panel.
The company, which started making the thin-film panels 18 months ago, expects to be in full production by the end of 2010.

For additional information, contact Steve Shepard, RayLen Vineyards & Winery at (336) 998-3100 or Rusty Jewett, Sencera, at (704) 393-1951.