Loazzolo in Piedmont features the first photovoltaic solar energy wine cellar.
February 7, 2005 is the date of the official birth of Piedmonts first solar power electrical generation plant not for private dwellings but directed at wine production, and consequently so the first solar powered wine cellar.
The plant consists of 22 photo-voltaic panels installed in June 2004, and capable of capturing sundays for producing some 10 kW of electricity a day, 365 days a year - not to be confused with the more common sun panels used for producing hot water - covering some 20 square metres located on the southern cellar roof side. This is a concrete example of the production of clean electrical power from renewable sources (info on www.regione.piemonte.it/ambiente o tel. 011 4321411 programming and energy saving division).

The other solar energy plant already operational at the enterprise since 1937 is at the old steep vineyard facing south that uses the chlorophyll syntheses of its leaves to transform sundays into the beautiful bunches of Muscatel grapes that produce Later Gathering Loazzolo DOC wine.
The Forteto della Luja agricultural enterprise has been making wine from these grapes ever since 1985 and has worked for years jointly with the awl= and the Asti Parks Agency on a project to encourage landscape preservation, called "Loazzolo Woods Natural Reserve".
It also takes part in the EU Eco-compatible Agriculture Programme in conformity with EC Regulation 1257/99. In the spring of 2007, it started the programme for converting all its vineyards and grounds in the Loazzolo municipality area from eco-compatible to biological agriculture.