PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The wine industry is at risk from substantial climate-related threats. Climate change and global warming have many impacts on wine production and quality, and numerous studies warn of the risks in wine-growing regions, especially the very important European ones.
This becomes even more significant when considering the size of the European wine industry. According to data from the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV), the total world area under vines reached 7.3 million ha in 2019, of which European vineyards covered 3.7 million ha. Global wine production amounts to 257 million hectolitres (hl), of which the EU accounted for around 163 million hl – or more than 63% of the world's wine.
Therefore, it is very desirable that wine companies become concerned not only with adaptation, but also how they can contribute to climate change mitigation. The wine sector has significant potential for big improvements in sustainability, but has been too slow to adopt mitigation measures.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE CLIMAWIN project addresses the problem of climate change by involving the wine sector in its mitigation. Wineries and vineyards will transform themselves by adopting a range of climate change mitigation actions including emissions reduction, carbon capture and use, sustainable land use in agriculture and forestry, and avoidance of fossil fuels and fluorinated gases.
The main objective of the project is to show that wineries and vineyards can become models of sustainability, encouraging them to adopt measures to tackle climate change including mitigation, adaptation and the circular economy.
The specific objectives are to:
- Assess the impact and greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential of land use change from traditional cereal mono-cropping to organically managed vineyards combined with forestry.
- Achieve long-term carbon storage in soil by reusing vineyard pruning and residues from forestry management as biochar. Biochar will be used to control GHG emissions from manure management and will finally end up in the soil together with manure, ensuring long term carbon sequestration.
- Introduce two innovative techniques to reduce emissions caused by refrigeration in wineries, avoiding the purchase of CO2 and the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). This will be done a) by capturing the CO2 produced by alcoholic fermentation and using it for refrigeration and b) using irrigation water to increase the efficiency of heat pumps for cooling fermentation vats and winery premises.
- Reduce the emissions associated with energy use in wineries and vineyards, greatly increasing the proportion of renewable energy consumed. A microgrid will be configured, whose energy flows will be managed in a smart and advanced way by a controller device specifically designed for the winery and vineyard. Thus the use of fossil fuels will be drastically reduced.
- Facilitate the way winery managers can identify the most effective and efficient mitigation measures, and to promote their application, by providing comprehensive analyses and guidelines for decision makers.
RESULTS
The main outputs of the project are:
- Three prototypes:
- Device for the capture and storage of CO2, for use in refrigeration in the form of dry ice (WP3).
- Hydrothermal heat exchanger for incorporating into existing cooling systems, which takes advantage of the thermal jump of the water extracted for irrigation (WP3).
- Microgrid controller, specially designed for energy management in vineyards and wineries, which maximises the renewable energy fraction whilst minimising CO2 emissions and reducing energy cost (WP4).
- Business plans for bringing the prototypes to the market. Task T.5.5 Developing the business plans for the marketable solutions (WP5) is specifically designed for this.
- A guide to help vineyard and winery managers find the most appropriate climate change mitigation measures for their company (WP5).
- Four main reports:
- Report on the effect of the different types of land use on soil carbon stocks (WP2).
- Report on the effect of different agricultural practices on GHG emissions (WP2).
- Study on the sustainability status of Spanish wineries (WP5).
- Guidelines for addressing climate change in winery companies (WP5).
- Two dissemination videos and a compendium of technical and scientific publications.
In terms of quantified achievements, the main project data by project end are:
- GHG sequestration: 1.5 tonnes CO2eq/year.
- Reduction in GHG emissions: 72.6 tonnes CO2eq/year.
- N2O: 10-20% reduction from land management.
