UC Davis Breaks Ground on Sustainable Winery Building

DAVIS, Calif.The University of California, Davis on Nov. 3 broke ground on its Jess S. Jackson Sustainable Winery Building, which will enable the adjacent winery, brewery and food-processing complex to become the first self-sustainable, zero-carbon teaching and research facility in the world.

The $4 million, 8,000-square-foot building is slated for completion in 2013 and was made possible by a $3 million pledge from the late Jess Jackson and his wife, Barbara Banke, proprietor of Jackson Family Wines.

This building will be used to explore new research areas, including ways to maximize water conservation in wine production and sequester carbon dioxide during fermentation," said UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi. With the technology that this building will house, we plan to produce wine with a net-zero carbon footprint and to develop models that are workable for the wine industry."

The building will include 10 dedicated, modular spaces containing equipment for various processes, including high-purity filtration of rainwater that can be used for cleaning fermentors and barrels in the winery. Ninety percent of the water and chemicals from each winery cleaning cycle will be captured and processed for future use in the complex, eventually being used as many as 10 times.

The building will house carbon dioxide captured from all fermentations in the winery and convert it into calcium carbonate, or chalk, which will be given to a plasterboard company. The building also will produce chilled water using an icemaker powered by electricity from solar panels and will be equipped to generate hydrogen gas by electrolysis and produce nighttime energy using a hydrogen fuel cell.

This new research facility fulfills a vision of sustainability that will allow UC Davis and the wine and food industries to reach a new level in conservation of water, energy and natural resources," said Neal Van Alfen, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.