When desire and determination combine, and are backed by follow through, the results can be groundbreaking. Such was the case with Paso Robles’ EOS Estate Winery, and its new owner’s desire to convert to solar energy.

By Amy Kurland

“Going solar was one of the highest priorities for us when we bought over the winery,” says Jeff Hopmayer, the new owner. “We think it’s important to do our part in helping with the environment, and we saw this as a very viable opportunity to do that quickly and efficiently.” The winery’s solar project, scheduled to be live around July of 2008, will make EOS Estate Winery the largest winery in the central California coast to have its primary source of energy be alternative.

Once Hopmayer bought the winery, in August 2007, he and his associates rolled up their sleeves and got to work on just how the winery would convert to solar. “We knew we wanted solar, and we knew it could be done on our site, but we just didn’t know how it could be done in the most efficient way,” he says. What was the most efficient method of capturing the energy? How would the system be set up? Which pieces of equipment would they use? Who would be the supplier? These were the questions on their mind, and they set out for answers.

The winery’s research included reading about different solar equipment, methods, and approaches. After contacting several large solar providers, the winery got in touch with SunTechnics Energy Systems Inc., the leading installer of solar power electric systems worldwide. Impressed with the company’s proposal for design and the efficiencies it would provide, EOS was convinced that SunTechnics was the one for the job. “They came back with a much greater efficiency level, with their system that allowed them to capture a larger amount of solar power than the other stable systems,” says Hopmayer.

Project Overview
What SunTechnics proposed for EOS is a state-of-the-art, solar photovoltaic (PV), single-axis tracking technology. Unlike conventional solar equipment, which accesses the sun’s energy only during peak levels, EOS’s tracking system actively tracks the sun as it moves across the sky in the course of a day, avoiding any shading.

In its entirety, the project will include the installation of more than 2 acres of ground-mounted solar PV arrays, and a roof-mounted solar thermal array. A 504 kWp solar PV single-axis tracker array will provide energy to the winery, and a 36 kWp solar PV fixed-tilt ground-mount array will provide energy to the tasting room. A solar thermal system comprising 100 solar thermal collectors will be used for the heating of the water.

SunTechnics’ state-of-the-art solar thermal system will utilize a glycol solution to capture the sun’s heat from the solar thermal collectors and transfer that heat to the winery’s water-heating system. This process will pre-heat the water, and reduce or eliminate the need for water heating from the conventional natural-gas boiler.

Although the new system will be able to create enough energy to power the winery on its own, the grid—PG&E in this case—will still be in the picture. “The grid will act like a big flywheel,” explains Robert Dally, director of engineering for SunTechnics US. “If it’s cloudy or nighttime, and the system is not producing enough energy, the winery will get their power from the grid. Then they will give back to the grid when they have too much.” The grid acts like storage—nowhere at the winery itself is energy stored. “To store solar energy it’s more expensive, because you have to do so with batteries,” adds Dally. “So it’s better to use the grid that way instead. In this sense, the grid is essentially being used as a big battery. The excess energy not being used by the winery will feed into the grid.” This means the winery will get anywhere from 0 to 100% of its energy from the grid. In this way, the winery is able to meet 100% of its energy needs from its solar PV system by feeding excess solar energy (generated during peak daylight hours) to the grid during the day, and buying back energy from the grid at night.

Tracking It Down
Although single-axis tracker technology has existed for nearly 20 years, many companies still don’t use it, choosing roof- or ground-mounted, fixed-tilt installations instead. A bigger company, such as Suntechnics, however, has the means to implement a ground-mounted installation for single-axis tracker technology and to attain the necessary parts.

The single-axis tracker technology was selected for EOS because of its efficiency. The tracker turns from east to west once a day to deliver up to 25% more energy than fixed-tilt technology. SunTechnics went with a tracker it designed and manufactured, simply called the SunTechnics Single Axis Tracker, which can only be used on level ground.

The installation is scheduled to start around April to May, with the hope that the system will be live in July, as mentioned earlier. EOS’s installation will take longer than a typical solar installation. First of all, the tracker needs to be installed on level ground, and the ground at EOS needed to first be leveled out in preparation for the installation. In addition, land permits are more difficult to achieve than roofing ones. And there was also environmental review associated with EOS’s installation.

Although all of these factors lengthened the time it would take before EOS would be functioning on solar energy, the winery is willing to wait it out since their priority was to attain the most efficient system they could find.

One of the big benefits of choosing this highly efficient system, even though, in this case it will take longer to install, is that the winery gets rebated on the amount of energy it produces. “All the electrical power is collected and run into an inverter that converts it from DC to AC, then we tie that into EOS’s electrical panel,” says Dally. “If the building does not need the electricity, it goes out to the grid and EOS is paid a credit by the utility.”

Laying It In
Aware that it would take some time to get permits for solar ground mounts, EOS had started looking into getting permits even before signing with Suntechnics. “This kind of thing is a permit nightmare,” admits Hopmayer. Although the solar provider, not the customer, actually does all the work of attaining the permits, it’s the length of time it takes to get them that can be so frustrating for the owner. Hopmayer believes, however, that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has made the process of attaining solar permits a little easier and quicker. “But, you still have to work with local counties to get final approvals, and those can take from two to eight months to get projects on the ground.”

For the tracker, installation first entails the drilling of holes in ground and putting posts in them by using concrete. The system is then mounted through these posts and connected to the drive mechanism. The solar modules are then attached to the tracker, and all the modules are wired into DC circuits all the way to the inverter. The final step involves installing wiring from the inverter to the electrical panel of the building.

Instead of contracting out, Suntechnics uses its own in-house installation team, streamlining the process. The installation itself will require about 10 men. Will it interfere at all with the winery’s tastings? Hopmayer is not the least bit concerned about this. “The installation will take place away from all of the operations. I’m sure there will be a day or two when they’re converting or pulling lines through the building, but that’s no big deal. Since the installation will not make much noise, and because the work will be done in an area not visible to customers having tastings, it shouldn’t affect business at all.”

The Contract
In its entirety, the solar PV and thermal systems cost just over 4 million. The contract SunTechnics and EOS agreed on is a 10-year lease with a buyout option at the end. The contract was written with flexibility, and EOS can shorten the terms should it choose to. The standard agreement is for 10 years. With this kind of contract, if a customer wants to buy out sooner it has to ask for a buyout price. And if it wants to pay more than the minimum, the soonest it can own the system is in six years.

Photo: SunTechnics

EOS’s system actively tracks the sun as it moves across the sky in the course of a day, thereby avoiding any shading.

For Hopmayer, an appealing aspect of the contract with SunTechnics is a clause that guarantees a certain rate of efficiency for the system. “SunTechnics guarantees the amount of energy its system should generate,” he says. EOS is funding the project with the help of state rebates and federal tax incentives, and in the end the winery will end up saving money. “If you look at our monthly energy bill usage, the system is costing us less to fund per month than it would cost to pay our energy without the system,” adds Hopmayer.

Another advantage for EOS is that the systems tend to last longer than the warranties. “By purchasing a solar system to generate your own electricity, you’re securing what you will be paying for electricity into the future for the life of your system,” adds Michael DeSousa, sales account manager at Suntechnics. “You’re no longer dependent on what the utility decides to charge, and you’ll always know what you will be paying every month beforehand.” Much better for budgeting, to say the least.

The Rebate and Credit Story
So what exactly are the rebates and credits EOS received for using and installing solar equipment? Rebates are given on a state-by-state basis. Fortunately, California is generous that way (New Jersey and California offer the most attractive rebates for this kind of project). EOS’s timing was particularly opportune, since it knew it wanted to go solar in 2007, when the California Solar Initiative (CSI) was started. The CSI is Schwarzenegger’s initiative for “one-million solar roofs,” that allows states to provide funds for the utilities to give rebates to owners using solar energy. The initiative, designed to invigorate the solar industry in California over a 10-year period, entails that the rebates will fall off over that 10-year time period. “The hope here is that the technology will come down in price as the rebates disappear, so that the technology no longer needs to be subsidized,” says DeSousa. “And if you’re on the fence about going solar, do it now,” adds Hopmayer.

As far as tax credits are concerned, a 30% federal tax credit and five-year accelerated depreciation is given for all solar PV systems and hot-water systems. The credit is a max of $2,000 for residential, but for commercial businesses there’s no cap. “So a commercial business like EOS will get the rebate, the tax credit, and the accelerated depreciation,” says DeSousa.

The combination of net metering, rebates, and tax incentives can make it possible for solar to be economically competitive with conventional forms of energy. As the price of solar technology comes down, and as electricity prices continue to rise, solar will become a more economically viable option.

Let’s Talk Numbers
For EOS, the savings are a huge benefit, but not the main reason it installed the system. “Although we didn’t necessarily install it for the savings, we think it will cut the electrical bill from where it is now, from around $290,000 a year, to zero.”

“It’s estimated that they’ll save about $8.5 million on their electricity over a 25-year period,” says DeSousa. “The expectation is that electricity prices will continue to rise, but EOS will have secured its price of electricity at a much lower rate, so the savings will continue to increase.”

Environmentally speaking, the “savings” are enormous as well. Over a 25-year period, the system is estimated to save the equivalent of 360 acres of planted trees, and over 21,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

Hands-Off Maintenance for EOS
The majority of EOS’s equipment is warranted for 25 years, but the life expectancy of the entire system is actually much longer. The maintenance contract frees EOS from doing any of the maintenance of the equipment itself—that’s all left up to SunTechnics. Once the system is live, SunTechnics will monitor it online. “If there seem to be performance issues,” says Dally, “that would indicate that it’s time to clean or rinse the panels.” In such a case, a SunTechnics rep would come out to EOS and take care of it. “We also come onsite to perform a simple visual inspection of the electrical boxes once a year.”

And what about repairs? “We don’t expect it to break,” says Dally. “We design and build quality systems, and since we’ll be monitoring the system’s performance, if it starts to malfunction we’ll go inspect the site and take care of whatever the problem is before anything else happened.” The monitoring system is very efficient, doing much of the monitoring even when a human is not present. The system will send SunTechnics an alarm if something is amiss within a certain set of parameters previously set by a Suntechnics operator.

Enhancing the City … And the Planet
Regarding rebates and tax credits, some companies will benefit more than others from using solar, depending on their electricity rates. For companies paying higher rates, like EOS, the credits and rebates make using solar a sort of no-brainer.

To gain maximum support and to raise awareness, EOS wanted to develop a relationship with the city. They met with the mayor of Paso Robles, Frank Mechum, several times to explain to him what they wanted. “He and his people helped us make sure that our decision was the right thing to do, and that we had the support of the community,” says Hopmayer.

Hoping that their installation will not only help the environment, but also raise awareness with other wineries, EOS was pleased to see that there’s been a positive response from other wineries already. “I’ve actually gotten some great comments from several local wineries who’ve been on the fence about going solar,” says Hopmayer. “My ultimate hope is that this system allows me to do my little part in helping preserve some portion of the environment.” 

L.A.-based journalist Amy Kurland specializes in marketing communications.

DE - March/April 2008