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A unique form of farming is ‘taking rise’ in the UK with fresh food and other crops being grown indoors on special towers using light, hi-tech food production equipment, and hot water.
“We construct energy-efficient buildings and create vertical farms inside of them,” said Dr Paul Hilton, CTO of Solar 2 Food Ltd. “With Brexit and also the current crisis we are living through, people understand the value of hyper-local food production and also the benefits of a secure food supply for our communities. Now we have methods, thanks to advances in horticulture lighting, to be able to grow food within buildings in this way.”
But the key difference with other vertical farming operations elsewhere is the inclusion of solar, and in particularly ‘hybrid solar’ i.e. solar panels that produce both electricity and heat. Solar 2 Food parent company Advanced Solar Technologies Ltd are the developers of the technology and their business model is quite simple: capture the heat energy (as hot water) from the hybrid solar panels and use that to help power the vertical farm units.
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“The solar panels produce the hot water really cheaply, so why not use it to help produce food for our communities at a lower cost?” said Solar 2 Food Chairman, Antos Glogowski. “Our vertical farming units are entirely hydroponic, using no soil whatsoever, so the system is effectively ‘plug and play’ with little waste. Our tech partner is Sananbio, part of one of the largest LED lamp manufacturers in the World and they have developed special LED lamps that give plants exactly the types of light they need to grow, and no more i.e. no wasted energy”.
The vertical farm units allow multiple crops to grow in a small space. And rather than one annual harvest each year, the controlled indoor environment of the Solar 2 Food facilities produce fresh food all year round without worrying about changes in the climate outdoors. “The technology also allows us to grow food locally that may usually grow in only certain parts of the world like Asia or Africa”, said Dr Hilton. “You get hyper-local, fresh produce that doesn’t have to travel halfway around the World to arrive on your dinner table, so we are making our own significant contribution towards sustainable, carbon-neutral societies that use only clean, green energy. Surely every business should operate this way?"