Hot topics

Electricity from wine pressings
«Vinnaya Karta» №3(111) April-May 2010

Tuscan Ginori Lisci now provides electricity for its own estate and also for 1,300 Italian families entirely from alternative sources.

The energy is produced from corn, triticale (hybrid of wheat and rye), sorghum and winemaking by-products such as grape stalks and skins. The estate has designated 280 out of total 2,000 hectares for ‘green’ energy production.

Owner Lionardo Ginori Lisci and his nephew Luigi Malenchini, who manages the estate, presented the innovative project at Vinitaly. Biomass is placed in closed fermenters where methane is produced, among other substances, through bacterial action. At the final stage of the process the gas is combusted which drives a generator to produce electric energy. The innovative Biogas plant occupies the area of nearly 3,000 square metres and annually produces around 5,6 mln. kW. Fifty one percent of the energy is used for internal needs, including all stages of a winemaking cycle from the reception of grapes to bottling, as well as for lights in the offices and garage, for the watering system, for private dwellings and the agriturismo. The other half is sold to the national electric grid. The estate invested 3 mln. euros to install the plant which should pay for itself within 5 years.

“Wine has remained the main Tuscan treasure and continues to be so... Today we have decided to take another step and to link together traditional agriculture, wine with its added value and also energy”, stated Luigi Malenchini.