I was reading an article in the Economist about California wineries using solar panels entitled, "Dionysus, meet Helios." The article shows a photograph of Arnold Schwarzenegger sipping a glass of wine. I had never really thought about how energy intensive winemaking is. With the chilling, fementing, bottling, etc., tremendous energy is consumed. Only a few dozen Californian wineries use the solar technology at this point, some predict this will change dramatically. California has huge "incentives for businesses and homes to adopt the otherwise unaffordable technology." Pacific Gas & Electric provides susbstantial rebates for use of the technology and there are both federal and state tax incentives for the solar panels. According to the article, most of the wineries break even in seven to eight years. The one winery featured in the article has no energy bill now and even has a surplus of electricity. The wineries can sell their power to the state's grid in the summer when the panels generate the most electricity. The wineries can then buy back the power from the grid later at a cheaper rate. The drawbacks to the solar panel use are still cost (apparently even with the rebates and incentives offered), due to the shortage of silicon. The other issue is a space factor--the panels use a lot of it.

The use of solar power by these California wineries is great example of how alternative energy can satisfy even very energy-intensive businesses. It's wonderful when the businesses, utilities and government can work together to make alternative energy a win-win situation. Pacific Gas & Electric is a terrific example of a once-failing utility capitalizing on the alternative energy boom. Hopefully, more California businesses will follow suit. Given how California is often a trend-setter, other states and businesses are bound to copy this model if it works for these wineries.