Canada wine region adds electricity to its crops

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Wine-making waste will be turned into electricity under a Canadian plan to capture methane gas from decomposing grape skins and seeds produced in southern Ontario's Niagara grape-growing region.

Constellation Brands Inc unit Inniskillin Wines and private energy producer StormFisher Biogas will use between 1,000 and 2,000 tonnes of grape pomace to produce power for Niagara-area homes. The waste material was previously shipped to a landfill sites.

StormFisher produces renewable energy by processing the food and beverage waste in industrial digesters, then using the methane to either generate electricity or be processed as natural gas.

The companies said on Wednesday that they may expand the project to other Inniskillin wine-making facilities on the Niagara Peninsula.

(Reporting by Susan Taylor; Editing by Rob Wilson)