Improving the energetic efficiency of wine cooperatives using their vine shoots

The European Commission has recently launched the Energy Roadmap 2050 in which several guidelines for a more sustainable, competitive and secure energy system have been set up. All the proposed scenarios consider energy efficiency, renewable energy, nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage. Therefore, the European policy is giving meaningful opportunities for public and private investment to support growth, employment and structural transformation. In this framework, the European Structural and Investment Funds 2014-2020 is focused on 11 thematic objectives, but the most interesting is the one which promotes technological development and innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises: a great opportunity for the small Italian companies located in the North-East. In fact, in the present work, the possibility of improving the energy efficiency of three large wine cooperatives is evaluated. Firstly, the overall production processes which are used to treat the wine are analysed to identify the differences among the wine cooperatives. Then, the electric load and the heating and cooling demands are monitored for one year to understand how the installed power generation units (photovoltaic plants, boilers and chillers) are managed. Using hourly meteorological data, the PV plants production are estimated where not available. Considering the grapes type and the extension of the vineyards which sell the fruit to each wine cooperative, an estimation of the annual vine shoots production and collection costs are made. Based on the collected data, the authors have explored the possibility of self- generating the electricity using a biomass boiler, fed with the collected vine shoots, and an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). In one wine cooperative, the performed techno-economic analysis reveals that the collected vine shoots are enough to feed the boiler and to guarantee an ORC production of 92 kWel for at least 6000 hours per year. Finally, some general considerations on consumption and on self-production opportunities have been derived based on the characteristics of the grape and the type of winery processing