The vineyard is expected to meet 95% of its electricity needs with the on-site solar array. Del Dotto Winery spends about $120,000 of PG&E electricity bills each year and is expected to save $3 million over the life of the project. The company is expected to break even on its solar investment in three years.
The project included the installation of four Mechatron M18KD trackers. Each tracker can support 90 solar panels with either 72-cut cells each or 72 panels with 144-cut cells each, culminating in a yield of over 43 kW on a single mast.
The winery’s system includes bifacial panels, collecting photons from both sides of the panel, including from light reflected off the ground.
The company said its dual-axis trackers produce roughly 40% more electricity than fixed-tilt solar projects and 20% more than single-axis tracking arrays. It has high energy density, adding up to 1 MW per 4 acres.
Each Mechatron tracker is typically raised 30 feet above the ground and occupies just a 10-square-foot footprint, keeping land use open and available compared to a typical single-axis tracker row. This project was modified to place the panels at a 15-foot height for aesthetic purposes as the winery sits along a stretch of scenic highway.
“We selected the Mechatron Solar tracker solution because of the minimal amount of landscape it takes up,” said Mike Burgess, the CFO of Del Dotto. “Scientifically and mechanically, the dual axis is more efficient than the alternative fixed-tilt solar or single-axis solar mounting systems.”
The solar project also included a microgrid controls system from LynxSystems. The microgrid controls system monitors the facility loads and either sheds load or adds load depending upon the alternate sources running capacity.
Mechatron manufactures its products in Stockton, California, making it eligible for domestic content tax credit bonuses under the US Inflation Reduction Act. Burgess said the project, on a net cash basis, reduced its cost by about 50% from gross costs due to incentives.
“We manufacture the M18KD at our Stockton factory in northern California and are proud to be able to say our trackers are Made in America, per 2022 US Treasury IRA Domestic Content Bonus Credit specifications,” said Ted Ronshausen, commercial director, Mechatron Solar.
The company’s dual-axis trackers can move through 360 degrees of azimuth rotation and 60 degrees of zenith inclination. It is rated to withstand wind gusts of up to 115 mph and snow loads of up to 35 psf, though snow loads are typically shed via an automated stow sensor and motion management software.
Mechatron Solar has an annual production capacity line of 200 MW of trackers.
