REDUCING ENERGY CONSUMPTION AT NORTH CAROLINA WINERIES: A CASE STUDY OF SHADOW SPRINGS VINEYARDS AND WINDSOR RUN CELLARS by Kayla DeCarr __________________________________ Dr. Timothy L. Johnson, Adviser April 2015 Masters project proposal submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Environmental Management degree in the Nicholas School of the Environment of Duke University 0 Table of Contents Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... i Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Background on Energy and the Wine Industry ....................................................................................... 1 Project Overview ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Site Description ........................................................................................................................................ 3 Shadow Springs Vineyard .................................................................................................................... 3 Windsor Run Cellars ............................................................................................................................. 3 Baseline Energy Use ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Summary Baseline Energy Analysis ......................................................................................................... 8 Weather influences .............................................................................................................................. 8 Size influences ...................................................................................................................................... 8 Additional influences ......................................................................................................................... 10 Benchmarking Energy Use .................................................................................................................... 10 Energy Assessment ..................................................................................................................................... 13 Shadow Springs Vineyard - Tasting room .............................................................................................. 17 Shadow Springs Vineyard - Wine warehouse ....................................................................................... 18 Windsor Run Cellars - Tasting room ...................................................................................................... 19 Windsor Run Cellars - Winery ................................................................................................................ 19 Energy Efficiency Recommendations ....................................................................................................... 22 No-cost ................................................................................................................................................... 22 Low-cost ................................................................................................................................................. 22 Medium-cost .......................................................................................................................................... 24 Capital Intensive ..................................................................................................................................... 24 Solar Site Assessment ................................................................................................................................ 26 Scenario 1: 100% on-site generation ...................................................................................................... 26 Scenario 2: 50% on-site generation ........................................................................................................ 27 Scenario 3: 25% on-site generation ........................................................................................................ 27 Scenario 4: Entire winery roof covered in solar panels........................................................................ 27 Financial Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 30 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 33 Prioritized List of Recommendations ................................................................................................... 34 Lessons Learned for the North Carolina Wine Industry ...................................................................... 36 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................... 38 Literary Citations ........................................................................................................................................ 39 i List of Appendices Appendix A. Recommendations Calculations. ......................................................................................... A1 Appendix B. Financial Incentives............................................................................................................... B1 Appendix C. Energy Efficiency Maintenance Check List .......................................................................... C1 List of Tables Table 1. Hamptonville, North Carolina Climate Data. ................................................................................. 3 Table 2. Site characteristics for facilities . ................................................................................................... 4 Table 3. Lighting analysis ........................................................................................................................... 14 Table 4. Inventory of current lighting at Shadow Springs Vineyard ....................................................... 14 Table 5. Inventory of current lighting at Windsor Run Cellars ................................................................. 15 Table 6. Inventory of HVAC and domestic hot water systems. ................................................................ 15 Table 7. Inventory of appliances ............................................................................................................... 16 Table 8. Solar Site Assessment for Scenario 1 .......................................................................................... 28 Table 9. Solar Site Assessment for Scenario 2 .......................................................................................... 28 Table 10. Solar Site Assessment for Scenario 3 ........................................................................................ 29 Table 11. Solar Site Assessment for Scenario 4 ......................................................................................... 29 Table 12. Financial analysis for solar site assessments .............................................................................. 31 Table 13. Summary analysis of energy efficiency project recommendations ......................................... 33 List of Figures Figure 1. Total monthly energy use at Shadow Springs Vineyard ............................................................. 5 Figure 2. Total monthly energy use at Windsor Run Cellars ...................................................................... 6 Figure 3. Monthly electricity use by the water pump ................................................................................ 6 Figure 4. Energy use comparison of tasting rooms to space conditioning demand ................................ 7 Figure 5. Energy use comparison of winery to space conditioning demand ............................................ 7 Figure 6. Comparison of monthly electricity use per square foot for the tasting rooms. ....................... 9 Figure 7. Comparison of unit and demand charge costs for monthly electricity consumption. ............. 9 Figure 8. Benchmarking tasting rooms to peer buildings ........................................................................ 11 Figure 9. Comparison of the Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of the tasting rooms ....................................... 11 Figure 10. Comparison of the simple payback period for solar scenarios. ............................................. 32 Figure 11. Comparison of payback periods for recommended energy efficiency projects .................... 34 ii Executive Summary Wine making is an energy intensive process. Even small operations use large amounts of energy. Because of this, some states have begun to implement formal sustainability programs to reduce energy use at wineries. These programs have demonstrated that energy efficiency improvements and on-site renewable energy generation can significantly reduce a winery’s energy demand. North Carolina hosts a rapidly growing wine industry and is home to the nation’s most visited winery, the Biltmore Estate Winery. With continuing growth trends, the wine industry will place increasing