Good Havens for Electricity

Napa's Havens Wine Cellars yesterday made the switch from convention energy to completely running on solar power. The solar panels were installed by San Francisco-based Sunlight Electric on the roof of their winery.

"Why not use the solar energy instead of just hiding from it," said Michael Havens, founder of Havens Wine Cellars. "After 12 years, I found it obvious that we had a lot of solar energy constantly hitting our winery, and spent thousands of dollars cooling ourselves from its effects. Now, we're just using what's most available, now that our technology has caught up with common sense."

The company also plans to use solar power to fuel its anticipated 60 percent growth over the next four years, ultimately saving as much as US$14,000 per year in energy costs.

I think this is an excellent idea that I hope more northern California wineries adopt in the near future.