Solar power system for Sirromet Wines

Sirromet Wines has installed a 200 kW solar power system at its headquarters near Brisbane. A total of 800 photovoltaic (PV) solar panels, each rated 250 W, have been fitted in separate arrays to the roofs of the two largest buildings at the Mount Cotton winery.

The larger of the two arrays is 528 panels, located on the roof above a building which includes a barrel room, storage and bottling areas, the cellar door and offices. There is another array of 272 panels on a roof above the wine tank area. The system includes a total of 11 inverters for the two arrays, and they are adjustable to control power supply.

Installation of the panels, inverters and wiring began in mid-July 2013, conducted by Clean Energy Engineering, and the system was activated in December. The solution was engineered by energy management company Energy Action.

Sirromet Operations Manager Alex Sey said plans for the solar power system were initiated about 18 months ago as part the company’s ongoing efforts to make its operations as environmentally sustainable as possible and followed a carbon emissions audit of the company. “We wanted to go down the solar route because it’s better for the environment, plus we have equipment unique to a winery that uses high volumes of power,” he said.

These include pumps for 97 refrigerated wine tanks and a fridge plant to maintain a constant temperature of 17°C in a storage area for 500,000 bottles of wine. “On top of that there is general power usage for the restaurant, cellar door, offices, the waste plant and other things,” said Sey.

The new system cost approximately $400,000, which was offset by a grant of $197,000 from the former Labor Government’s Clean Technology Investment Program. The cost will further be offset by saving the company “about $50,000 a year, or 20% of our power costs, and benefit the environment by reducing our annual carbon emissions by more than 400 tonnes”, said Sey.

These savings are a result of the solution being “one of the biggest solar power systems of its type in Queensland for a private company such as ours”, said Sey. “You could power 40 to 50 medium-to-large family homes with 200 kW.”