Winery seeks energy security
Posted April 19, 2017
Organically-certified Gemtree Winery at McLaren Vale has a 10kW solar system to run its cellar door and a 100kW system to cover much of the energy needs of the winery.
Vigneron Melissa Brown recently showed the systems to Federal Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie during her renewables road trip with the Australian Conservation Foundation.
Ms Brown said the move by the family business into renewables was driven not just by the ethos of their winery but also the need for energy security and reliability.
“In this region we have quite a lot of power outages which impact on businesses and the people who live here so if we have some good sources of energy we can eliminate these power outages,” she said.
“It’s great that Rebekha could do this tour.
“I think it shows she has an interest our region and what’s going on here.
“It’s really important that she is meeting all the people who live in her community, that she understands the businesses here and understands some of the issues and challenges we face.
“I’d like Rebekha to push for more clean energy resources in Parliament and give more reliable sources of energy in SA and in McLaren Vale.”
CAPTION: Melissa Brown from Gemtree Winery talks about the features of her organic biodynamic sustainable enterprise at McLaren Vale with Federal Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie.