Solar hot water company awarded for winery installation

Solar hot water company Apricus Australia has been honoured with an environmental award at the Wine Industry Suppliers Australia’s (WISA) Supplier of the Year Awards. The awards aim to recognise excellence in supply and manufacturing within the Australian wine industry.

The company jointly won the Banrock Station Environmental & Sustainability Award with The Solar Project for their collaboration in delivering the largest solar thermal plant for a winery in Australasia. The judges noted, “While individual finalists in their own right, their joint collaboration to provide solutions to our industry, that prides itself on its green credentials, resulted in not being able to split these two winners.”

Apricus Managing Director Chris Taylor accepting the company’s award.

Apricus Australia Commercial Manager Bryan Moss explained that De Bortoli Wines was seeking to expand its bottling lines to keep up with increased demand. “This was seen as an opportunity to not only increase efficiency of the production line, but also design the new plant with energy efficiency in mind to reduce their overall energy usage,” he said.

Apricus partnered with other suppliers - S4B Studio, The Solar Project and Fletcher Plumbing - to custom-design the solar thermal plant at the winery’s upgraded bottling plant in Bilbul, near Griffith. The Apricus solar hot water system consists of 3000 solar tubes, plugged into 100 AP30 manifolds that are preheating 12,000 L of storage for the bottling plant.

Apricus is said to be the only solar hot water company in Australia to provide evacuated tube solar collector technology manufactured in its own company facilities. Apricus founder and Managing Director Chris Taylor said the tubes were suitable for the project due to their built-in frost protection (-15°C rating without glycol) and high-temperature performance.

The tubes preheat the condensing boilers to dramatically reduce their energy/gas consumption. During the winter months, they are mounted on a 37° pitch to maximise solar performance.

Paul Fletcher of Fletcher Plumbing noted, “After commissioning, the system was powered on from 8 am with a starting water temperature of 20°C. The system achieved 12,000 L of storage at a temperature of 71°C by 3.30 pm!”

Furthermore, said Taylor, “The 200 kW Apricus solar thermal plant is expected to reduce De Bortoli’s water heating costs by more than 80% annually when it is running at optimal capacity and supply close to 100% of heating requirements during the summer months. In addition, energy usage is expected to reduce from 382,180 kWh down to 71,065 kWh each year.

“Importantly, the installation has the equivalent carbon abatement of 3800 trees being planted each year and will help drive De Bortoli towards its goal of being ‘The Zero Waste Winery’.”

Apricus has also installed data logging and monitoring equipment and will track the system performance over time to ensure it continues to deliver optimal performance.

The WISA judges said Apricus “demonstrated how their solar thermal technology is so suited for use by wineries to reduce energy and fossil fuel demand”.