Watsonville, CA – California Giant’s, New West Cooling Facility in Watsonville received a significant ‘cooling face lift’ this week in preparation for the 2016 Watsonville berry season.
The New West Cooling facility on Industrial Rd in Watsonville received a complete new cooling tower and condenser system replacing the original unit that was installed back in 1988 and had served the 35,000 sq ft facility for 27 years. This new system is expected to reduce cooling time by about 20 minutes per tunnel while using significantly less energy at the same time. Final installation is still underway and the new unit will begin cooling fruit harvested in the Watsonville area next week.
The investment of more than $200,000 in this equipment is part of the company’s overall commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility. The new cooling tower installed is using new technology which consists of four cooling fans that run independently so as the fruit load in the cooler increases and decreases they automatically adjust running individually to be more energy efficient and only utilize cooling power necessary based on fruit load in the building. The older system ran as one complete unit.
Staff and other local businesses had quite a show as a large crane lifted the equipment over the facility on Industrial Blvd to reach the tight space between the buildings where the cooling system was installed. The pieces removed weighed well over 50,000 pounds that was transported to a recycling facility.
Source: California Giant Berry Farms
