Back analysis of a horizontal geothermal plant implemented in a wine production process

The Salcheto winery, located in Montepulciano (Italy) has undertaken a process of reduction of primary energy consumption and implementation of green energy technologies. Thanks to bio-architecture solutions, the winery has reduced the energy consumption of 54%. The rest of the energy is covered by photovoltaic panel, wood biomass and geothermal energy. A horizontal ground source heat exchanger (GSHE) plant is used to cooling a part of the pressed grapes and control the wine production temperature. The target of this analysis is to investigate some technical issues of the plant and to solve them in order to increase the efficiency of the system. The first step has been the evaluation of the operational conditions of the GSHE plant. The results have indicated a low performance of the plant therefore, some modifications have been proposed and analyzed. The geothermal plant has been used to give the condensation heat of the refrigeration unit to the ground, thus cooling the entire production line. The proposed configuration has been realized in 2016 and the back analysis has demonstrated a high efficiency of the new plant. Furthermore, the refrigeration unit, may cover the cooling request of the entire residential and office building without other plant improvements.