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The Australian wine company Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), owner of Penfolds, Pepperjack and Saltram, among others, has fully automated its barrel storage facility in the Barossa Valley. With an investment of the equivalent of 6.17 million euros, nine driverless forklift trucks, customised barrel management software, automated barrel washing and filling systems and individual barrel identification were introduced. The barrels can now be moved through the entire wine ageing process and tracked throughout their entire life cycle. This increases the capacity of the red wine warehouse by 60 per cent to up to 125,000 barrels. According to a TWE spokesperson, minimising manual handling increases employee safety and boosts capacity for the production of luxury and premium wines. The forklift drivers will be retrained for other tasks.
The hall is 35,000 square metres in size and part of TWE's largest bottling plant, which was expanded in 2022 at a cost of over 100 million euros. The site is equipped with 6,000 solar panels, which cover up to a quarter of the electricity requirements. This means that the new autonomous forklift trucks are powered entirely by renewable electricity. A 254,000 cubic metre rainwater storage tank was built for the water supply and a wastewater treatment plant was constructed. TWE has set itself the goal of achieving emission-free production by 2030.
(al / Source: winetitles.com.au)