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Glase Uses Outreach Activities To Inform And Educate Growers, Manufacturers And Suppliers
The goal of the Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering (GLASE) consortium is to create a more sustainable and profitable greenhouse industry
Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering (GLASE) consortium is using outreach activities to provide controlled-environment growers, lighting manufacturers and service companies with pertinent information to increase energy efficiency and improve their products and operating procedures.
By David Kuack
The goal of the Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering (GLASE) consortium is to create a more sustainable and profitable greenhouse industry. The consortium is a partnership between Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Albany, N.Y. GLASE is supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and by industry partners.
The consortium is conducting research to improve controlled environment agriculture (CEA) operations. Research activities include improving lighting fixtures and systems that synergistically control lighting and developing plant lighting and carbon dioxide control strategies. These strategies would ultimately reduce energy consumption to create a more sustainable and profitable greenhouse industry. Although the focus of GLASE research is on greenhouse production, the findings are expected to have application to other controlled-environment production systems including vertical farms and warehouses.
Information for the CEA industry
In addition to the research being conducted by GLASE, the consortium is also offering a variety of outreach activities to provide growers, lighting manufacturers and service suppliers with information that can assist them in improving their business operations. These activities include webinars, technical meetings and trade journal articles.
“The webinar series is the one activity that GLASE has been doing the longest,” said Neil Mattson, horticulture professor and greenhouse extension specialist at Cornell University and GLASE principal investigator. “The webinars are open to the entire industry. Some have been more oriented towards growers. Others have more application to the supply side, including manufacturers and service providers.”
Improving energy efficiency through benchmarking
“One of the webinar topics we covered is our energy efficiency benchmarking platform, Mattson said. “GLASE worked with sustainability solutions service supplier EnSave Inc.. The company does farm energy audits and also helps farms to apply for grants to make energy efficiency improvements. What the company found working with other agricultural commodities, including dairy farms and poultry producers, is there are more solid benchmarks on how much energy those industries use. The greenhouse industry is highly fragmented in regards to the crops grown and the numerous geographic locations of growing operations. What’s lacking is a unified data bank or benchmarks of typical energy usage numbers for heating and lighting relative to the crops that are grown.”
Neil Mattson at Cornell University said GLASE is using a variety of outreach activities to provide CEA industry members with information that can assist them in improving their business operations.Photo courtesy of Neil Mattson, Cornell Univ.
Because of the diversification of the horticulture industry, Mattson said it has been more difficult to collect energy-use data.
“Through this collaboration with EnSave we are hoping that growers will use this benchmarking database,” he said. “We’ve tested it and we’re trying not to make it too onerous for the growers so it’s as easy as inputting their monthly utility bills. The growers would also input their productivity units, which could be heads of lettuce, pounds of tomatoes or number of 6-inch ornamental plants. We are looking to collect information from both greenhouse vegetable and ornamental plant growers. The data base could accommodate both types of crops.”
“The real strength of this data base would lie in having a critical mass of users. For the individual users of the data base, they would be able to see how their operations compare to other industry benchmarks. Growers would be able to compare their businesses to an anonymous group of similar operations. If growers find they are using more energy per output, they could try to determine why they are using more energy. Nationally this could be useful to growers who are trying to obtain federal funds from grant programs for adopting energy-efficient systems. We would also like to be able to share with the industry some of this anonymous benchmark data that is collected.”
Horticultural lighting label
Another GLASE webinar topic was on a horticultural lighting label. The webinar was presented by A.J. Both, a professor and extension specialist at Rutgers University and member of the GLASE research team.
One of the GLASE webinar topics was the horticultural lighting label which has helped to educate growers about lighting fixtures. Photo courtesy of A.J. Both, Rutgers Univ.
“This webinar was oriented toward greenhouse growers, educating them as to what to look for and what questions to ask lighting manufacturers when they are considering adding lights or looking to make changes to their lighting systems,” Mattson said. “The webinar was also aimed at the lighting manufacturers that potentially would adopt the label.”
Mattson said the lighting label has helped educate growers about lighting fixtures.
“Growers are learning the lighting units to use when comparing lighting fixtures,” he said. “Although lighting manufacturers haven’t adopted the entire label yet, they have incorporated elements of it. Lighting manufacturers have become much better at providing technical specifications. They are talking about lighting units in terms of plant lighting not human lighting. They are talking about micromoles of light instead of lumens of light. Rarely are footcandles used anymore by growers and lighting manufacturers.”
Lighting fixture analysis
Another one of GLASE’s outreach activities is to drive adoption of the horticultural lighting label. GLASE has partnered with Intertek, a total quality assurance provider, to work with its lighting company members.
“Intertek has the specialized equipment for quantifying light output and light distribution,” Mattson said. “Each lighting company that is a GLASE member can submit one lamp a year for testing by Intertek. Intertek conducts a series of measurements with each lamp. GLASE then takes the raw data generated by Intertek and we provide the lighting companies with a lighting label for each lamp that is analyzed.
“There are currently six lighting companies that are GLASE members. This spring we had the first companies take advantage of the lamp analysis. The companies decide whether they want to share the lighting label GLASE provides them. This is a good way to introduce the GLASE lighting company members into the process of what it takes to generate the information that is needed to prepare a lighting label.”
Informational conference calls
GLASE has been offering its members periodic informal conversations on industry-related topics.
“These industry talks enable GLASE members to learn in a more informal setting where there is not a large audience,” Mattson said. “This provides GLASE members more time to have their questions answered by the speakers which could directly help them with their business.”
The first industry talk was a video conference call with lighting researchers Kevin Folta at the University of Florida and Bruce Bugbee at Utah State University who discussed the potential benefits of green light in plants.
“The green light conference call was geared more towards the growers, but GLASE manufacturer and supplier members were also able to participate,” Mattson said. “The informal format for these calls has been conducive to discussion between members and the speakers. There are 20 minutes during which the thought leaders talk about the topic and then that evolves into a question and answer period with the members. The program format enables the participants to have their questions answered.”
One of the informal industry talks offered by GLASE to its members discussed the potential benefits of green light on plants. Photo courtesy of Kevin Folta, Univ. of Fla.
Another industry talk covered power supply and power distribution options for CEA. This call was geared more to the lighting manufacturers. The speakers included Bahram Barzideh, principal engineer of LED lighting components at Underwriters Laboratories (UL), and Frank Cirolia, systems and application engineer at Artesyn Embedded Technologies.
“For LED lights some of the energy is used by the diode,” Mattson said. “This is the energy used to produce the light. Some of the energy is used by the power supply as well as the driver. There have numerous developments in power supplies, which have helped to improve the energy efficiency of the new generation of lights. Regarding power distribution, there are opportunities for improving energy efficiency related to the way power is delivered to the fixtures.”
Articles on research findings
Technical articles about GLASE research results are the newest outreach activity.
“GLASE will be rolling out these articles this summer,” Mattson said. “Some of these articles will be geared more to the growers. Other articles will have application to suppliers and lighting manufacturers.
“Topics will include the plant research and the lighting control studies that we have conducted at Cornell. There will also be articles on designing more energy-efficient lights, which is what researchers at RPI are working on.”
The following articles will appear in CEA-related magazines in the coming months.
July: Multi-spectrum research LED lights
August: Greenhouse light and shade system implementation controls
September: Light distribution measurements in tall canopies
October: Spectral acquisition systems for greenhouses
November: Plant responses to integrated light and CO2 controls
December: Horticultural lighting fixtures analyses
For more: Neil Mattson, Cornell University, School of Integrative Plant Science, Horticulture Section, Ithaca, (607) 255-0621; NY 14853; nsm47@cornell.edu; http://www.cornellcea.com; http://www.greenhouse.cornell.edu
Editor’s note: Neil Mattson will be doing three educational presentations at this year’s Cultivate’19, July 13-16, in Columbus, Ohio
Biostimulants: Another Tool for the Grower’s Toolbox
Sunday, July 14, 2:45 p.m.-3:45 p.m.
Greenhouse Light and Carbon Dioxide Management to Enhance Crop Yield
This educational session will include information related to GLASE research.
Monday, July 15, 11:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
Lighting Approaches to Maximize Profits (LAMP)
Tuesday, July 16, 9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.
David Kuack is a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas; dkuack@gmail.com
Posted in Interviews
Heliospectra Continues Global Expansion With Tokyo Office
General Manager Yasuhiro Suzuki to Lead Installations of Heliospectra’s integrated LED and helioCORE™ Light Control Solutions for Japan’s Plant Factories and Vertical Farms
July 09, 2019
General Manager Yasuhiro Suzuki to Lead Installations of Heliospectra’s integrated LED and helioCORE™ Light Control Solutions for Japan’s Plant Factories and Vertical Farms
(GOTHENBURG, Sweden / SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 9 July, 2019) – Heliospectra AB (publ) (OTCQB: HLSPY, FIRSTNORTH: HELIO), a world leader in intelligent lighting technology for greenhouse and controlled plant growth environments, announces the formation of Heliospectra Japan Co., Ltd. and the opening of a new Tokyo, Japan office in July 2019 under the leadership of General Manager Yasuhiro Suzuki.
“With Yano Research Group forecasting indoor grown vegetable sales from Japan’s vertical farms to reach 27.8 billion yen by 2022, Japan has established itself as the global role model in demonstrating the seamless integration of automation and control systems. Using Heliospectra’s most advanced LED lighting technologies and light controls, these businesses will consistently deliver fresh, locally grown and nutritious produce to retail markets, urban food service and quality-conscious consumers,” said Ali Ahmadian, CEO, Heliospectra.
Over the years, Heliospectra has rapidly expanded their product portfolio to focus on the benefits spectra-controlled LEDs, real-time sensor feedback and dynamic, automated light response bring to growers and commercial food producers. The company has also established strong local market presence and collaborations directly with customers in Europe, Canada, the United States, South America and Oceania.
As Japan’s plant factories and controlled environment farms create new demand for the robust helioCORE™ light control and horticultural LED lighting integrations as well as the complete helioCARE™ plant science and technical services expertise that Heliospectra offers, the company will focus on building customer relationships and strategic partnerships with the Tokyo office and a local Japanese team.
“Heliospectra has created intelligent and highly advanced LED lighting and light controls that provide growers and businesses with a comprehensive, flexible and fully connected system,” said Yasuhiro Suzuki, General Manager for Heliospectra Japan. “I look forward to working with Japan’s highly sophisticated growers and large-scale facilities to improve their profitability through standardizing crop performance and yields with Heliospectra’s customizable business solutions.”
Mr. Suzuki previously served in senior leadership positions with Tetra Pak for 25 years developing strategic partnerships and an extensive business network in Japan and across Asia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Rikkyo University in addition to associated graduate degrees in Marketing, Management and Organizational Leadership from IMD and Ashridge Business Schools.
Investor Relations:
Ali Ahmadian, CEO of Heliospectra | +46 (0)72 203 6344 | ir@heliospectra.com
Redeye is Heliospectra Certified Advisor for Nasdaq First North - www.redeye.se
Certifiedadviser@redeye.se | +46 (0)8 121 576 90
Heliospectra AB (publ) (OTCQB: HLS, FIRST NORTH: HELIO) is the global leader in intelligent lighting technology, light control systems and related services for greenhouse and controlled plant growth environments. With the vision to make commercial crop production more connected and resource-efficient, Heliospectra integrates customized LED spectral strategies with real-time response and artificial intelligence to create predictable and reliable business forecasts and harvest results. Founded in 2006, Heliospectra is committed to helping growers and commercial producers across six continents consistently increase yields and produce crops with quality appearance, superior nutritional or medicinal value and longer shelf life, harvest after harvest. Heliospectra is the recipient of multiple international awards and recognitions. For more information, please visit https://www.heliospectra.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
The statements in this press release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Such statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations and are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control. In addition, such forward-looking statements are subject to assumptions with respect to future business strategies and decisions that are subject to change. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, technical advances in the industry as well as political and economic conditions present within the industry. We do not take any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or developments after a forward-looking statement was made.
This information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 14:00 CEST / 7.00 AM CDT on July 9th 2019.
Tags:
Heliospectra , LED Lighting Strategies , Heliospectra AB , HLSPY , HELIO , OTCQB , Ali Ahmadian
About Us
Heliospectra AB is the industry’s most proven intelligent lighting technology for greenhouse and controlled plant growth environments. With the vision to make commercial crop production more connected and resource-efficient, growers and commercial producers across six continents use Heliospectra’s holistic and flexible solutions to consistently increase yields while producing crops that achieve quality appearance, superior nutritional or medicinal value and longer shelf life, harvest after harvest. Founded in 2006 and winner of multiple international awards and recognitions, Heliospectra has raised more than $32 million in capital to date. As a publicly traded company, the majority ownership remains with some of Heliospectra earliest investors Weland Steel, Midroc New Technology and Swedish Industrial Fund. For more information, please visit https://www.heliospectra.com.
2019 Five-Day Introductory Training Course on Plant Factory With Artificial Lighting (PFAL)
By urbanagnews - July 8, 2019
September 23rd – 27th, 2019
In response to increasing global demands from indoor farmers, researchers and future entrepreneurs in the exciting emerging field of plant factory with artificial lighting (PFAL), also known as vertical farm, this coming September, Japan Plant Factory Association (JPFA) together with Chiba University will host again an intensive five-day introductory training course in English on PFAL.
Since 2010, JPFA and Chiba University have been organizing various in-depth and practical sessions, including introductory to advanced courses. This five-day introductory session in English, held September 23rd – September 27th, covers what you would need to know before or after starting PFAL business or research.
The sessions will be interactive academic and practical classes, covering topics such as structure and function of PFAL, environmental control, lighting, plant physiology, nutrient solutions, seedlings, recent new technologies toward next generation PFALs, and business case studies of commercial large-scale PFALs. In addition to lectures by academic professionals and PFAL representatives, optional excursions to some commercial PFALs on the last day of the course will be organized.
*The curriculm would be the same as the introductory course last year.
1. Objective and Goal
-To offer foundation for theory and experience-based practice, with a view to foster academic and industrial development toward next generation PFAL.
-To facilitate development and dissemination of technically and economically sustainable PFAL, through providing the firsthand technical and conceptual classes by broad-ranging professionals in practice from both academia and PFAL industry.
2. Target group: Who would attend?
Motivated current/potential indoor farmers who plan to start or just started PFAL business or research. They will gain understandings of elementary theory and practice of PFAL, basic knowledge of cultivation and operational management, and keys for business success, etc.
3. Lecturers and program
■Scheduled Lectures： Chiba University / JPFA:
T. Kozai, Y. Shinohara, T. Maruo, S. Tsukagoshi, N. Lu, M. Takagaki, T. Yamaguchi, O. Nunomura and E. Hayashi
Lecturers from the PFAL industry: Representatives from 808 Factory and others(K. Kai and K.Uraisami)
Read the complete article here.
Great Lakes Growers
An early LED adopter, Bonner began trialing LEDs in 2015, and after seeing the success in a small area, expanded his Philips LED toplighting installation in 2016, again in 2017, and will install Philips grow lights with his greenhouse expansion
John Bonner, owner of Great Lakes Growers, discusses how he considered qualitative and quantitative benefits when evaluating LED lighting.
An early LED adopter, Bonner began trialing LEDs in 2015, and after seeing the success in a small area, expanded his Philips LED toplighting installation in 2016, again in 2017, and will install Philips grow lights with his greenhouse expansion.
IHS ‘Ready to Grow’ Horticultural LED Grow Lights Named As Innovative New Product Winner at HTA National Plant Show
Intelligent Horticultural Solutions (IHS) was thrilled to be announced the Innovation winner in the New Product Showcase at the HTA National Plant Show, which took place on 18-19 June 2019 at Stoneleigh Park, Coventry.
Intelligent Horticultural Solutions (IHS) was thrilled to be announced the Innovation winner in the New Product Showcase at the HTA National Plant Show, which took place on 18-19 June 2019 at Stoneleigh Park, Coventry.
New HTA members IHS received the accolade for their ‘Ready to Grow’ range of Florence horticultural LED grow lights. The annual event was a great success with a wide variety of British suppliers to the horticultural market exhibiting their wares. Attendees, were mainly suppliers to the green-fingered public such as garden centres, landscape gardeners, etc., voted the IHS lighting solution as the most inspiring, Innovative New Product showcased at the show.
IHS’s Florence LED grow lights are designed specifically for low and no sunlight applications, maximising growth potential whilst minimising both initial purchase costs and on-going running costs. The Florence unit is no deeper than a standard fluorescent tube fitting, allowing an easy switch to LED lighting without losing growing space.
The modular design enables a smooth, effortless installation, which paired with the standard 100-240V AC mains input, allows for a quick and easy electrical installation, saving further time and cost. LED recipes are available for a wide range of standard horticultural applications, as well as fully customisable solutions.
The Florence range is proving to be a success within the sector having already won the Award for Best Innovation 2018 at the GroSouth Show held last November in Chichester. This was an important day for IHS, being the official launch and showcasing of the new Florence LED grow light modules into the fast-growing horticultural market.
There are currently eight different standard Florence LED recipes to choose from including; Biomass, Seeding, Flowering, and Fruiting” (available for applications both with or without existing daylight). Three different lens options are available, per recipe – narrow, wide and oval to direct the light onto the target areas.
These recipes were devised in conjunction with experts from LED manufacturer Osram Opto Semiconductors, who are market leaders in the supply of quality LEDs for the horticultural lighting sector.
IHS’s ‘Ready to Grow’ LED lights enable a longer growing season and also increase the speed of growth for plants, when under the correct recipe.
The Florence product range is currently available for purchase through RS Components.
LED Recipe IHS Part Number RS Article (Buy Here)
Biomass FLORENCE-BIO-WIDE-CASED-1CH-01. (187-4965)
Seeding FLORENCE-SEED-WIDE-CASED-1CH-01. (187-4970)
Flowering FLORENCE-FLOWER-WIDE-CASED-1CH-01. (187-4967)
Fruiting FLORENCE-FRUIT-WIDE-CASED-1CH-01. (187-4968)
Quality LED horticultural lighting from IHS is a cost-effective and viable solution for both backyard gardeners and large commercial growers alike. Ideal markets for these grow lights include polytunnels, environmental chambers, propagators, vertical farms and indoor farms, as well as schools, universities and research institutes.
IHS is a LED Light for You (LLFY) Partner, which draws on world-leading quality LEDs from Osram Opto Semiconductors and combines them with other quality components, materials and in-house expertise to provide the LED solution you need.
More horticultural LED Grow Light product families are being introduced from IHS in the near future, watch this space!
All our horticultural LED Grow Lights will be on show at our 2019 Horticultural LED seminars. - Sign up now
For enquiries or further information, please contact +44 (0) 1635 294606 or info@i-hled.co.uk
Or alternatively, refer to our website www.i-hled.co.uk
ILS is a division of Intelligent Group Solutions Ltd (IGS) a well-established and respected industry leading display and opto-electronics solutions provider. IGS’ provides semi-custom or custom products both in component and sub-assembly form. All the senior staff have been involved with the opto-electronics industry for at least 20 years and are dedicated to ensuring that ILS is an innovative and highly successful operation.
4 July 2019
Is Vertical Farming Really the Future of Agriculture?
Indoor, LED-lit growing operations produce food without soil or sunlight — but scaling up could prove difficult
Indoor, LED-Lit Growing Operations Produce Food
Without Soil or Sunlight — But Scaling Up Could Prove Difficult
By Steve Holt July 3, 2018
A vertical farming setup from farm.one | Photo courtesy of farm.one
This story was originally published on Civil Eats.
By now, the images of shelves full of perfect greens in hulking warehouses, stacked floor to ceiling in sterile environs and illuminated by high-powered LED lights, have become familiar. Food futurists and industry leaders say these high-tech vertical farming operations are the future of agriculture — able to operate anywhere, virtually invincible against pests, pathogens, and poor weather, and producing local, fresh, high-quality, lower-carbon food year-round.
That future seemed one step closer to reality last year when San Francisco-based indoor farming startup Plenty, which grows a variety of salad and leafy greens hydroponically (without soil) and uses artificial lighting in facilities in three locations, announced that it had raised a whopping $200 million in funding from the SoftBank Vision Fund, whose investors include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Flush with cash, Plenty quickly opened a 100,000-square-foot indoor farm outside Seattle that promised to produce 4.5 million pounds of greens annually—and testing some varieties not yet grown for the masses at scale, such as strawberries and tomatoes, at its research and development farm in Wyoming. To Plenty’s leadership and many observers, the cash influx signaled the economic promise of growing food indoors without sunlight and with less soil and water than field farming.
“My reaction [to the $200 million round] was both that of validation, excitement,” said Matt Barnard, Plenty’s co-founder and CEO, over a manner of farming he says yields 350 times the produce per acre on one percent of the water used by dirt farming. “Now we must move with speed and efficiency if we’re to accomplish our mission of bringing people worldwide an experience that’s healthier for them and the planet.”
Not everyone is in agreement.
“My first thought was, ‘we could build a lot of greenhouses for $200 million,’” recalls Neil Mattson, a professor of plant science at Cornell and one of the country’s leading academic voices on indoor agriculture, who’s found that high-tech greenhouses that harness sunlight are more cost- and carbon-friendly than vertical farms that use artificial light.
Most vertical farmers are only hoping to claim a percentage of the conventional produce market, not replace it. To these founders and their investors, the market for lettuce and greens, especially — grown primarily in California and Arizona and shipped worldwide — is ripe for disruption. E. colioutbreaks like the one that hit Arizona-grown romaine lettuce earlier this year, killing a handful of people and sickening hundreds, only further their case.
But behind futurists’ fervent predictions about indoor agriculture, claims about product quality, and sexy technology lies a reality known by industry insiders but too often missing from media coverage: The future success of this nascent industry is still very much an open question.
The astronomical capital costs associated with starting a large hydroponic farm (compared to field and greenhouse farming), its reliance on investor capital and yet-to-be-developed technology, and challenges around energy efficiency and environmental impact make vertical farming anything but a sure bet. And even if vertical farms do scale, there’s no clear sense of whether brand-loyal consumers, en masse, will make the switch from field-grown produce to foods grown indoors.
Tricky Economics
Walking into any supermarket will reveal a small mountain of salad greens, carrying a price tag of between $9 and $12 per pound. They may be locally grown or organic, which will add $0.50 or $1 to the price tag. Meanwhile, a 4.5-ounce carton of Massachusetts-based FreshBox Farms’ spring mix—grown in the company’s hydroponic farm in Massachusetts—costs $3.99 for a 4-ounce box, or $15.96 per pound. Or kale: the conventional variety will run you $1.33 per pound at Walmart; organic kale costs around $4.99 per pound at Whole Foods; and vertically farmed kale grown at Newark, New Jersey-based AeroFarms will cost you a whopping $14.18 per pound.
That dramatic price gap is due to the millions of dollars currently needed to build one large indoor vertical farm — and that price is not going to drop until the industry scales up. Agritecture Consulting, whose clients include current and prospective indoor farms, estimates that a 30,000-square-foot vertical farm growing leafy greens and herbs in the tri-state area around New York City requires nearly $4 million in startup capital—not including labor.
They should know: In 2016, Agritecture built farm.one in Manhattan’s TriBeCa neighborhood, which supplies hydroponic greens and edible flowers to a number of the city’s top restaurants. Chefs have been quick to catch onto the value of consistent, year-round, locally grown produce.
In 2016, AeroFarms, now considered an industry leader, spent $30 million on its flagship aeroponic farm in Newark. The majority of these costs lie in the equipment needed to grow greens without soil or sunlight—heating and cooling systems, ventilation, shading, environmental controls, and lights.
All of these costs add up to a hefty electricity bill: According to models compiled for Civil Eats by Agritecture, a 30,000-square-foot vertical farm in metro New York City should budget upwards of $216,000 annually for lighting and power, and another $120,000 on HVAC systems; costs will vary region to region depending on what each state charges for electricity.
Energy and equipment costs are, by far, the largest drivers of expenses that can bring the price of operating a vertical farm close to $27 per square foot. By contrast, Agritecture’s models show that the cost to run a 100,000-square-foot smart greenhouse is roughly a third as expensive, thanks to the use of natural sunlight and more advanced automation.
An LED-lit indoor farming operation | Photo courtesy of Agritecture
Vertical farms’ energy usage carries a significant carbon footprint. While vertical farm companies promise more-sustainable produce by growing it closer to consumers and using renewable energy to power their operations, the industry still has a long row to hoe.
Industry leaders acknowledge the energy challenges in the short term, yet tout continually improving lighting technology that has brought down costs. But Mattson, whose Cornell team studies the way plants respond to different lighting, predicts a plateau coming for improvements to LED technology.
“The best LEDs are 40 percent more energy efficient than in 2014,” Mattson says. “There continue to be improvements; however, those improvements will start to slow down over time. There’s only a finite amount of light you can generate at a given wavelength, and in 2022, I’m not expecting new lights to be 40 percent more efficient than the current lights now.”
FreshBox Farms began shipping greens from its 40,000-square-foot hydroponic facility in Millis, Massachusetts, in 2015. The warehouse farm, located 30 miles outside of Boston, runs on a combination of renewable energy and non-renewables, and CFO Dave Vosburg admits his company is “not doing any better” than field-grown greens when it comes to carbon usage.
When it eventually expands outside of Massachusetts, Vosberg says that by introducing a cogeneration system—technology that recycles otherwise wasted heat into new energy—FreshBox Farms will eventually keep costs and carbon emissions down in expensive markets like Connecticut, where commercial users pay an average of more than 14 cents per kilowatt-hour. But Vosburg says the company’s priority is to use contextually appropriate renewable energy sources to power the farms, such as wind energy in the Midwest, hydro in the Northwest, and solar in the Southwest.
“Yes, it sounds crazy to take the sun and turn it into electricity and turn that electricity back into light. It sounds ridiculous, but that’s what we’ll be doing,” Vosburg says. “It’ll be really efficient and clean and create a better product, and it won’t have the same carbon impact that we’re having today.”
And energy isn’t even a vertical farm’s top ongoing expense. The companies Civil Eats spoke to say labor is actually their largest budget item. Vertical farms typically pay workers higher, more metropolitan pay rates than both dirt farms—many of which rely heavily on migrant labor—and the more automated smart greenhouses. The fast-food chain Wendy’s announced in June that it plans to source vine-ripened tomatoes exclusively from greenhouse farms by early 2019.
Moreover, no matter how automated the indoor growing system is, vertical farmers are discovering the constant need for a human eye—or several—on the process. In fact, some estimate that if indoor agriculture continues to grow at the pace it has in recent years, vertical farms will have to hire 100,000 workers over the next decade.
That continued growth is not a given, however. Because of the high cost to launch, operate, and scale up a vertical farming operation, the industry is highly leveraged, with each new farm requiring tens of millions of dollars in investor capital before it can grow a single plant. Between 2016 and 2017, investments in vertical farming skyrocketed 653 percent, from $36 million to $271 million. The lion’s share of that investment went to Plenty, but Newark-based AeroFarms has raised $80 million in recent years and New Jersey’s Bowery Farming added another $27 million.
Just last week, Manhattan-based BrightFarms announced it had raised $55 million. Shoppers can now find produce grown indoors by more than 23 large vertical farms in more than 20 supermarket chains in nearly every major metropolitan area in the country, according to Agritecture.
While industry leaders say scaling offers the best hope for profitability in this business, many vertical farms have encountered problems when they began planning to add additional production facilities. Before Atlanta-based PodPonics closed its doors in 2016, executives from the five-year-old hydroponic farm startup met with executives from supermarket chain Kroger.
A vertical farming operation from farm.one | Photo courtesy of farm.one
Kroger indicated that it was ready to purchase 25 million pounds of produce from PodPonics annually if it would build the facilities to support that kind of production, founder Matt Liotta told a crowd at the 2017 Aglanta Conference. According to Liotta, who said PodPonics had lowered the cost to produce a pound of lettuce to $1.36, Whole Foods and Fresh Market also expressed interest in bringing PodPonics greens into their stores nationally.
“This was our wildest dream,” Liotta said. “Then we realized how much capital that was going to require, how many people we were going to have to hire. Every retailer told us the same thing: ‘We will buy it if you will build it.’ We realized we were incapable of building everything that they wanted.”
Unproven Demand for Food Grown Indoors
In early 2016, researchers from the University of Illinois-Urbana set out to determine whether consumers would spring for produce grown indoors. They asked a panel of 117 participants a series of questions about their perceptions of and willingness to pay for lettuce grown in fields, greenhouses, and in vertical farms. While vertical farming ranked fairly high in terms of produce quality and safety, the tech-heavy production method was rated less “natural” than both field farming and greenhouse and ranked last in participants’ willingness to purchase it.
For the vertical agriculture industry to eat into the profits of field-grown products—a roughly $140 billion industry—Agritecture Consulting founder and managing director Henry Gordon-Smith says it will first need to prove consumers are demanding produce grown indoors. He points out that because of a lack of demand, many vertical farming operations are not yet at full production year-round—despite touting the 12-month growing season as a main benefit of the industry.
His sense is that indoor farms that have achieved the sales to produce continually—such as Gotham Greens has with its New York City greenhouses, for example—have a customer base that’s responding to strong “local” branding rather than the technology behind the food. That may include vertical farms selling their produce using the USDA Certified Organic label, which the National Organic Board reaffirmed in January, much to the dismay of many organic dirt farmers.
“I think the automation and economics are all improving,” Gordon-Smith says, adding that the question of “whether consumers are going to pay more or whether the products coming out of vertical farms are going to align with their values” is still an open question.
But while many of the East Coast vertical farms built their business models around replacing greens being shipped cross-country from California and Arizona, Matt Barnard of Plenty hopes to add to the global population consuming fresh produce. A 2015 report found that where USDA guidelines suggest each of us in the U.S. should eat up to three cups of vegetables daily, current U.S. production is only providing enough for 1.7 cups per person. Barnard extends that supply gap to the rest of the world, especially the Middle East and Asia, where a lack of water and high pollution have hampered agriculture.
Tending to a vertical farm from SF-based startup Plenty | Photo courtesy of Plenty
“We believe the industry will be five times larger when there is supply to meet the demand,” Barnard says. “With the field unable to deliver consistent supply, new forms of agricultural capacity like Plenty must be added to the global food system.”
But as vertical farming companies like Plenty go city by city attempting to dominate local markets, it may be that small farmers get hurt the most. Barnard drew the ire of Washington State dirt farmers last year when he told GeekWire that Plenty expanded to Seattle, in part, because it was the West Coast’s “best example of a large community of people who really don’t have much access to any fresh fruits and vegetables grown locally.”
Not so, according to Sofia Gidlund, Farm Programs Manager at Tilth Alliance, which advocates for and supports local agriculture systems in Greater Seattle.
“We work with many hardworking local farmers who supply Seattle with high-quality, delicious, and nutritious food while caring deeply for our land. These farmers use sustainable farming practices, nurse the soil, create beautiful open green space and provide wildlife habitat,” says Gidlund, who adds that she does not speak for all area farmers on the issue of vertical farming. “Many consumers in Seattle choose to support local farmers, both urban or rural, because of this deep connection to the land. Providing that support is a point of pride for many Seattleites.”
Actual Data Is Coming
Peer-reviewed research into the business of vertical farming has been sparse, partly because the industry is so new. That’s set to change, however, when Mattson and a team of researchers at Cornell University finish a comprehensive study into the viability of this approach.
A three-year, $2.4 million research grant, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and kicked off in January, will compare the vertical farming industry to field agriculture in a slew of categories, including energy, carbon, and water footprints, profitability, workforce development, and scalability. The study will include one of the first nutritional analyses of food grown indoors, as well as comparing the price-per-pound to deliver strawberries, lettuce, and tomatoes grown vertically and outdoors to five U.S. metropolitan areas: New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.
A 2016 study conducted by a few of Mattson’s colleagues at Cornell found that the energy consumption and carbon footprint associated with a vertical farm (the study calls it a “plant factory”) is significantly higher than that of a greenhouse. Vertical farming leaders counter that they use significantly less water than field farms, are more space-efficient, and do not produce emissions from trucking produce across the country. Mattson says these factors were not considered in Cornell’s previous research but will be included in the current grant.
“[Vertical farming] is not a fad,” says Mattson, who wants to use data to help the industry become more sustainable over time. “I’m not sure to what degree it’s going to scale up, but this is happening. So we need to understand the economic and environmental implications— both the good and the bad.”
U.S. Vertical Farms Are Racing Against The Sun
Leafy salad greens grown under banks of LED lights, with mist or drips of water are having their day in the sun. Several top U.S. indoor farms, stacked with plants from floor to ceiling, tell Reuters they are boosting production to a level where they can now supply hundreds of grocery stores
JULY 5, 2019
(Reuters) - Leafy salad greens grown under banks of LED lights, with mist or drips of water are having their day in the sun. Several top U.S. indoor farms, stacked with plants from floor to ceiling, tell Reuters they are boosting production to a level where they can now supply hundreds of grocery stores.
TO VIEW VIDEO, PLEASE CLICK HERE
Plenty, Bowery, Aerofarms and 80 Acres Farms are among young companies that see a future in salad greens and other produce grown in what are called vertical farms that rely on robotics and artificial intelligence, along with LED lights. While the first versions of modern vertical farms sprouted about a decade ago, in recent years the introduction of automation and the tracking of data to regulate light and water has allowed them to get out of lab mode and into stores. Now they are trying to scale up.
Plenty and others say their customized, controlled lighting - some more blue light here, some more red light there - makes for tastier plants compared to sun-grown leaves and that they use 95% less water than conventional farms, require very little land, and use no pesticides, making them competitive with organic farms. And because vertical farms exist in windowless buildings that can be located in the heart of urban areas, produce does not have to travel far by fossil-fuel-guzzling trucks to reach stores.
The companies’ expansion comes as plant-based burger makers Beyond Meat Inc and Impossible Foods captivate investors and make inroads in high-end restaurants and fast-food chains.
But whether the sunless farms can compete financially with their field-grown brethren, given big upfront investments and electric bills, remains a question.
“We’re competitive with organic today and we’re working very hard to continue to make more and more crops grocery store competitive,” said Matt Barnard, chief executive and co-founder of Plenty, which is based in Silicon Valley.
Chef and Plenty advisory board member Nancy Silverton prepares a salad during a demonstration in San Francisco, California, U.S., June 11, 2019. Picture taken June 11, 2019. REUTERS/Jane Lanhee Lee
Plenty’s salads sell on organic grocery delivery site Good Eggs for 99 cents an ounce, while a leading brand, Organic Girl, on grocery chain Safeway’s online site was priced at 80 cents an ounce.
Plenty said its new farm, dubbed “Tigris,” can produce enough leafy greens to supply over 100 stores, compared with its previous farm that could only supply three stores and some restaurants.
The technology world is paying attention. In its last round in 2017 Plenty raised about $200 million from investors including Japan’s Softbank, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and former Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt. New York City-based Bowery raised $95 million in a fund-raising round led by Google Ventures and Temasek last year.
Bowery said its third farm coming online soon will help it supply hundreds of stores from dozens today, and Aerofarms, in New Jersey, said it is doubling its space to meet demand.
None of the three companies would give details about costs.
Former Vertical Farm CEO Matt Matros is skeptical that sunless farms can make economic sense. He invested in and ran Chicago-based FarmedHere in 2015, but changed its business into food processing.
“The issue with indoor farming was that you could really only grow a couple things efficiently — namely basil and micro greens. But the problem is the world just doesn’t need that much basil and micro greens,” Matros said.
80 Acres Farms in Cincinnati says it already grows and sells tomatoes and cucumbers, and Plenty is testing cherry tomatoes and strawberries in the lab.
Plenty CEO and co-founder Matt Barnard tastes a salad prepared by chef and Plenty advisory board member Nancy Silverton during a demonstration in San Francisco, California, U.S., June 11, 2019. Picture taken June 11, 2019. REUTERS/Jane Lanhee Lee
Agriculture technology investor Michael Rose says vertical sunless farms are more expensive to run than modern greenhouses that rely on sunlight, supplemented by LED lights. He sees limited areas where it makes sense, such as the Middle East, where much of the food is imported, or China’s mega-cities where pollution and urban sprawl limit the availability of premium fresh food.
At Plenty’s new farm, robots put seedlings in tall, vertically hung planters. The planters move along a wall of LED lights for 10 days, and are then put through a harvesting machine that shaves off the leafy greens.
The machines minimize labor needs, and Plenty says the speed of production also helps control pests.
“We use no pesticides,” said Nate Storey, co-founder and chief scientist at Plenty. “We don’t even have to use things like ladybugs, because we go so fast in our production that we out-race the pests themselves.”
Reporting by Jane Lanhee Lee; editing by Peter Henderson and Leslie Adler
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Recently, FOX Business Aired A Segment About Full Spectrum LED Grow Lights And Spectrum King LED
Spectrum King LED, the pioneer of full spectrum LED Grow Lights (patent No.10238043), specializes in designing, manufacturing and selling professional-grade LED grow lights for indoor grows and greenhouse applications.
Spectrum King LED, the pioneer of full spectrum LED Grow Lights (patent No.10238043), specializes in designing, manufacturing and selling professional-grade LED grow lights for indoor grows and greenhouse applications.
The company started after the founder Rami Vardi, was looking for a more efficient solution for indoor growing. He wanted a light that would produce high-quality yields like the “old school” lamps, but with a much lower electric bill.
Now, Spectrum King LED has customers and fans all over the world, in both the cannabis and the food production industries.
If you grow indoor, contact Spectrum King LED at +1 (888) 654-0737 or email sales@spectrumkingled
LEDs and LED Systems For Horticultural Growth - Horticultural Seminars
University of Lincoln - Tuesday 2nd July 2019
Rothamsted Conference Centre - Tuesday 3rd September 2019
University of Bristol - Thursday 12th September 2019
Join OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, world leaders in LED technology for horticultural and agricultural applications, with Intelligent Horticultural Solutions (IHS), their UK Systems Integration Partner, for a free one-day seminar. We will discuss all the latest Horticultural LED technological advancements and introduce new ranges of Horticultural products for growers and researchers.
IHS was formed to help support the development and manufacture of products in the fast-moving exciting area of horticultural LED lighting, bringing together years of experience and key horticultural LED and optic manufacturers to enable a perfect solution.
There will also be the chance for one-to-one discussions with OSRAM and IHS engineers to discuss any LED technology or product requirements that you may have, whilst networking with key players from the Industry, with hands-on demonstrations of new and existing products. There may also be an opportunity to visit horticultural areas within the venue.
REGISTER ONLINE www.i-hled.co.uk/seminar-registration
HORTICULTURAL SOLUTIONS
Wageningen University Proves Viability of Fluence by OSRAM LEDs
Five-month growing trial on high-wire tomatoes conducted by Wageningen and Vortus demonstrates full-spectrum LEDs from Fluence by OSRAM are a viable solution to replace legacy HPS fixtures
June 11, 2019
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands & AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wageningen University and Research (WUR), in cooperation with Fluence by OSRAM and Vortus, has released initial results of a cultivation trial analyzing the viability of full-spectrum LED lighting solutions, using Fluence PhysioSpec Greenhouse™ spectrum, in comparison to legacy high-pressure sodium (HPS) greenhouse lighting fixtures. Preliminary data shows PhysioSpec Greenhouse is up to 11% more effective than HPS in yield for certain tomato cultivars, with the added benefit of being more energy efficient than HPS fixtures.
“The initial results of this trial show growers can cultivate tomatoes as effectively with PhysioSpec Greenhouse as you can under HPS, possibly with a better yield, and with shorter stems,” said Dr. Ep Heuvelink, associate professor, WUR. “Of the tomatoes grown under PhysioSpec Greenhouse, when compared to the HPS control environment, the WUR team saw the crop developed well and fruits had similar dry matter content. In fact, fruit yield is a bit higher in the LED sections for the Tomagino cultivar, which is a welcome benefit when considering the energy reduction LEDs naturally exhibit over HPS technology.”
Dr. Heuvelink, and his team at WUR, tested PhysioSpec Greenhouse in comparison to HPS lighting from a recognized vendor. The research was conducted on Tomagino and Merlice tomato cultivars. WUR will publish the full data set later this year.
“Current practices use HPS technology as the sole source for supplemental lighting in greenhouses and the WUR trial proves this should not be the case,” said Barend Lobker, director and owner, Vortus. “Growers have been reluctant to transition to LEDs because they are uncertain if LEDs can be as effective for cultivation and the WUR trial eliminates any doubts around the capabilities of full spectrum LEDs.”
“This is a very exciting result for the application of full-spectrum LED technology in greenhouse tomato production. It demonstrates that even without any other environment optimization for LED solutions, LEDs can match, or even out-perform legacy lighting fixtures for commercial growers,” said Haris Ouzounis, horticulture service specialist and senior photobiologist, Fluence by OSRAM. “Upcoming studies from Fluence into the influences of light quality, distribution, and intensity, as well as optimizations to the rest of the environment should demonstrate improvements in productivity compared to legacy production practices.”
Further Collaborations in Science and Research
Cooperating with recognized thought leaders around the world is a top priority for Fluence by OSRAM. This initial trial with WUR is the first in a series of results Fluence will release over the coming months. Additionally, Fluence is advancing several other initiatives with research centers, universities, and organizations around the world to further develop best practices and forward-looking applications for the industry.
“Basing our solutions on research and science are fundamental differentiators which sets Fluence apart,” said David Cohen, chief executive officer, Fluence by OSRAM. “We are proud to be working with Wageningen University and to join the WUR Club of 100, to further extend the world’s understanding of critical and fundamental horticultural research. Greenhouses are a significant source of nutritious fruits and vegetables and WUR’s ground-breaking research will empower more countries to cultivate high-quality crops in an energy-efficient way.”
To learn more about the preliminary results, meet with the Fluence team at Green Tech in Amsterdam, or visit https://fluence.science/wageningen for more information.
About Fluence by OSRAM
Fluence Bioengineering, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of OSRAM, creates the most powerful and energy-efficient LED lighting solutions for commercial crop production and research applications. Fluence is the leading LED lighting supplier in the global cannabis market and is committed to enabling more efficient crop production with the world’s top vertical farms and greenhouse produce growers. Fluence global headquarters are based in Austin, Texas, U.S.A., and its EMEA HQ in Rotterdam, Netherlands. https://fluence.science
About Wageningen University and Research
The mission of Wageningen University and Research is “To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life.” Under the banner Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen University and the specialized research institutes of the Wageningen Research Foundation have joined forces in contributing to finding solutions to important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment. With its roughly 30 branches, 5,000 employees and 10,000 students, Wageningen University & Research is one of the leading organizations in its domain. The unique Wageningen approach lies in its integrated approach to issues and the collaboration between different disciplines.
About Vortus bv
Established in 1982, Vortus bv is an independent greenhouse consulting firm which services clients from around the world. The team is comprised of ten consultants, which specializes in providing technical advice regarding climate, irrigation, nutrition, energy management, and labor management for greenhouse environments. The Vortus bv office is based in Honselersdijk, The Netherlands. For more information on Vortus bv services, visit www.vortus.eu.
Canon Exploring The Vision of Indoor Agriculture
June 12, 2019
AUTHOR: Ivan Ball - Content Contributor to iGrow News
The well known digital imaging company, Canon U.S.A. Inc., attended the 2019 Indoor Ag Con in Las Vegas.
A small team based out of Richmond, Virginia brought a prototype vision system for the indoor vertical farm industry. One of the team members claimed that they were attending the conference just to learn more about the needs and wants of indoor farmers to further develop a fully autonomous plant vision system.
The prototype at the conference utilized a small RGB camera encased in a 3D printed housing that allowed the camera to travel along a rail system throughout a vertical shelf farm on display. This camera would travel over the tops of the plants and snap pictures at different locations to monitor their growth. Once the camera is finished capturing images of the plants, it would travel back to a wireless charging station to fill its battery as well as upload all the images and locations of the plants. One of the engineers explained that this technology would make it cheaper to implement fewer cameras for a larger farming facility.
Each farming shelf could use just one camera that would travel the shelf in an oval pattern. Canon has been developing high quality imaging equipment for over 80 years and could bring a disruptive technology for farms in the near future. This new system combined with artificial intelligence and machine learning could allow indoor farmers to receive quicker growing insights for making operational decisions.
Dennis Riling, Director of Business Development at Illumitex presented on the interaction between light and plants. He explained how Illumitex is using FarmVisionAI to attach cameras to their grow lights to detect pest outbreaks, leaf wilting, growth rate, nutrient deficiencies, and predict yield estimates.
This image feedback combined with the ability to manipulate light spectrums, dose fertilizers, and adjust pH could allow farmers to even change the taste, color, and texture of plants according to Blake Lange, Business Development Manager at Signify, formerly Philips lighting. Blake is doing research with dynamic spectrum LEDs on their GrowWise Control System to find light recipes to change the taste of plants.
Keep an eye out for Canon as they continue to investigate the industry of controlled environment agriculture (CEA). The team is highly aware of the growing indoor agriculture industry and plans to find new innovative ways to join the space as they learn more from the farmers.
June 12, 2019 - LED Conference During GreenTech
The application of the LED technology can propel a cultivation business or a plant research project forward but can also pose challenges. Firstly, the LED offer on the market is vast, complex and confusing and secondly, LED is only one of the available lighting technologies.
The best way to understand how to advance properly onto LEDs is by hearing the stories of those who have done it before. Experts from the fields of crop science, vertical farming and medical plants cultivation will gather in the LEDs & Innovators Conference 2019 to discuss the application of the LED technology and more. The conference will be held during GreenTech at the RAI premises and is free of charge for the GreenTech participants but with a very limited number of seats available.
The 3-part event consists of a Crop Science and Light session, a Hard Science Talk on Cannabis session and a Vertical Farming Innovators Panel. Participants can choose which one to participate in and thus hear first-hand experiences from those who have ventured into the world of LEDs already. The scope will expand beyond just lighting and additionally participants will have a chance to ask their own questions.
In the Crop Science and Light session, we will try to show what kind of light is most useful for researchers and how to successfully transition from trialed and tested protocols made with fluorescent and other, more traditional technologies onto LEDs. In the Hard Science Talk on Cannabis, Dr. Grassi, one of Europe’s most prominent Cannabis sativa researchers, with two decades in the field will discuss terpenes.
The scent molecules of the cannabis plant are sought after almost as much as the cannabinoid compounds and our understanding of their value is still scarce. Finally, the Vertical Farming Innovators Panel will gather vertical farmers as well as industry specialists who will discuss not only lighting for vertical farming, but the ins and outs of this field which is on the exponential rise. You have a chance to propose a topic you wish to be discussed by the panelists. You will have an opportunity to do so in the registration form for the event.
The participation in the event is FREE of charge, however the number of seats is very limited so it is best to register right away.
To learn more about the event and register, please click here.
Conference Program
10:15 – 11:15 Crop Science and Light
Stefanie Linzer, Biologist, Valoya
High Quality White LED Light for Crop Science Applications
11:30 – 12:30 Hard Science Talk on Cannabis
Dr. Gianpaolo Grassi, Head Researcher, CREA-CI, Italy
How Does the Light Spectrum Affect the Terpene Profile of Cannabis?
13:00 – 14:30 Vertical Farming Innovators Panel
Mark Korzilius, Co-Founder & CEO, Farmers Cut, Germany
Rasmus Jakobsen, Manager, Greenlandic Greenhouse
Gus van der Feltz, Chairman, Farm Tech Society
Henry Gordon-Smith, Managing Director, Agritecture
Lars Aikala, CEO, Valoya
About Valoya
Valoya is a provider of high end, energy efficient LED grow lights for use in crop science, vertical farming and medical plants cultivation. Valoya LED grow lights have been developed using Valoya's proprietary LED technology and extensive plant photobiology research. Valoya's customer base includes numerous vertical farms, greenhouses and research institutions all over the world (including 8 out of 10 world’s largest agricultural companies).
Additional information:
Valoya Oy, Finland
Tel: +358 10 2350300
Email: sales@valoya.com
Web: www.valoya.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valoyafi/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/valoya
TotalGrow Launches New Mult-HI Light Fixtures
The team of lighting experts at TotalGrow are pleased to announce the launch of the new TotalGrow Mult-HI fixture line. These high intensity, multi-bar light fixtures from 170-640W at up to 2.7 µmol/J provide exceptional growing power, quality and uniformity with excellent affordability and ease of implementation, all at only 2” thick.
Various options allow Mult-HIs to provide ideal solutions for any vertically-confined, high intensity growing situation. These include:
· 170W, 240W, 320W and 640W lights styles with 3-8 light bars and 18-43” widths for PPFDs up to 1000+ µmol/m2/s.
· Direct-connecting daisy-chaining for remarkably clean and simple large installations, or built-in power cords for smaller setups.
· Standard or High Efficacy versions of almost any light spectrum to precisely match growth and business goals, or the very versatile Venntis Full Grow Spectrum for almost any crop.
Built-in power supplies inside of the lights further simplify installations and reduce spacial needs. Perhaps most helpful of all is individualized, patient horticultural lighting expert attention to make sure lighting opportunities and challenges are well understood and the optimum light plan is provided for grows of any size and type.
TotalGrow HI-Top Updated for Improved Costs
In addition to the launch of the Mult-HI lights, TotalGrow has released a new generation of High Intensity Top-Lights (HI-Tops). When the thin, wide form factor of the Mult-HI is not needed, such as in greenhouses or larger-spaced warehouse grows, the newest generation of HI-Top generates an ideal light spectrum for diverse supplemental and sole source applications with a versatile output pattern, exceptional efficiency and profound total value in a pleasant work environment. This plug-and-play solution is simple to implement, low on upfront and ongoing costs and makes it possible to sustainably grow high quality plants year-round over a very long lifetime.
· 330 or 530W of power at up to 2.6 µmol/J for the light intensities your plants need
· Robust, reliable and streamlined design for simple utilization
· Full spectrum for exceptional versatility
Spectrum Customization Available
With over 7 years of research, development and diverse experience in the horticultural lighting market refining these designs and informing application recommendations, the TotalGrow team is well equipped to provide custom lighting plans for any lighting need. Contact info@venntis.com with your project goals to explore how you can shorten growth cycles, improve yields and quality, reliably produce year-round and drastically reduce energy costs.
For more information:
Jeff Mastin – Biologist
315.373.9716
jeffm@venntis.com
totalgrowlight.com
"Vertical Farming Is A Viable Solution For Urban Environments"
Ali Ahmadian, Heliospectra
Heliospectra CEO Ali Ahmadian will join AVF at Urban Future Global Conference to provide a keynote speech on May 22. AVF’s Head of Science and Education Ramin Ebrahimnejad sat down with Mr. Ahmadian to learn more about the company and their vision for the future of lighting control in vertical farming.
What are the key factors to operating a successful vertical farm?
I think the two key factors for creating a successful and profitable vertical farm are 1) the choice of crop and 2) the choice of technology.
Today, vertical farms have proven success with a wide variety of herbs, lettuce or leafy greens and berries as these crops respond well in compact production areas with artificial lighting. And it is exciting to see many of these operations as well as research organisations like NASA and DLR’s EDEN ISS push the envelope with successful cultivation of even more vegetables and seed varieties. Vertical farmers know well that the only constant is change and we see vertical farming operations rapidly diversifying the types of crops they are taking to retail markets.
Choosing proven technologies that deliver reliable control and crop performance is essential. Growers and vertical farmers need to recognise that lighting controls and environmental controls, or the lack thereof, impact businesses’ ability to deliver consistent, highest quality produce to market, harvest after harvest. Predictable, repeatable production cycles and consistent crop results rely on a solid control system to ensure predictable and stable revenue streams for the business.
How important are associations like AVF for growing the industry?
AVF and other partner associations are important because they provide standardised guidelines, best practices and collaboration opportunities for established growers and, also for new businesses who may be interested in starting up a vertical farm. AVF represents and advocates on behalf of a huge community of professionals and experts. The knowledge that this community shares with each other ensures the future and the success of the vertical farming and horticulture industries. And most importantly AVF helps businesses and the supply companies like Heliospectra attract new scientists, product developers and technologists who will create the new growing environments, cultivation methods and innovations for future generations.
Can you evaluate the importance of UFGC in regard to connecting vertical farming with decision makers?
The Urban Future Growing Conference is an opportunity to demonstrate the difference that vertical farming and indoor farming applications are making in communities across the globe. We need to show urban planners and city planners that vertical farming is a viable solution for urban environments and that it will provide significant contributions and fresh, sustainably grown and nutritious food supplies back to local communities. My expectation is that we as an industry and as business decision makers can partner with AVF and other UFGC participants to create a new mindset or type of thinking. We share a vision that local communities will benefit from better quality crops and produce, that businesses and vertical farms will create local jobs, that industry will collaborate with universities to create more educational opportunities and vocational training programs, and that we as a society can reduce carbon footprint worldwide while securing our future food supply.
Read the full interview here.
Publication date: 5/20/2019
KropTek Announces Angel Capital Raise of £3 Million
At the recent opening ceremony of KropTek’s new production facility in Shenzhen (China), Wissam Farah, Director and Managing Partner announced KropTek’s capital raise milestone.
KropTek Ltd, one of the UK’s leading LED grow light and grow system providers, has successfully completed its £3 million angel investment round. “The initial target set in Q4 2018 was £2 million. KropTek’s growing activity during the past 6 months allowed the company to adjust the business plan projections and increase the capital raise to meet significant investor appetite at this early stage,” shared Wissam.
The investment included high net worth private angel investors from 13 different countries, highlighting KropTek’s global appeal. The equity raise is eligible for the UK Enterprise Investment Scheme, an HMRC tax incentive for private equity investment in early stage for companies.
On the 4th April 2019, the company held a prestigious Inauguration Ceremony in Shenzhen (China) for its new LED grow light production facility, attended by clients and investors visiting from around the world. KropTek currently supplies LED grow lighting and container farming systems to major clients in North America, Canada, UK, Europe, and Asia.
KropTek’s high-spec container farms, offer a unique environment for the growing of quality plant material in any global location and are proving successful with a number of plant and fruit growers in the UK and Europe. KropTek is developing its container farm range and investing in greater production capabilities to meet the exponentially growing demand in this sector, as well as providing turnkey systems for indoor farms.
“With KropTek’s leading technology, I believe in the business strategy and mission of the company. Over the next few years, indoor farming is going to release enormous market growth in the economy. KropTek’s LED Grow Lights and Container Farm solution has the opportunity to bring more affordable, cleaner and safer food to millions of people around the world”, added Jim Cowles, Non-Executive Director, designate.
To fulfil its global ambitions KropTek’s management team will use the new investment to actively pursue an aggressive growth strategy to meet consumer demand.
"By Water-Cooling Our LEDs, We Reduce Heat And Air Conditioning Load"
Cannabis growing facilities are known to generate a great amount of heat which, if not monitored and controlled properly, could result in issues that require a real big effort and a substantial amount of money to fix. One of the components of cannabis greenhouses that create a lot of heat is the lighting system. "The industry is seeing a shift from HPS to LED lights, as the former, although cheap in terms of initial cost produces too much heat, (over 4000 BTU per hour for the most powerful fixtures) forcing growers to resort to expensive HVAC solutions. While LEDs also produce heat, due to their increased efficiency level, they generate on average of 25% less heat than a comparable HPS fixture," Troy Robson with Agnetix points out.
Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is a growing trend that uses technology-based approach toward plant and food production. This includes cannabis indoor and greenhouse grows. Resorting to these kinds of solutions greatly facilitates the management of a cannabis growing facility, but there are things to take into consideration and issues to solve nonetheless.
“The greatest problem that growers have is that current HPS lighting systems require you to purchase 3 watts of cooling for every 1 watt of lighting. This business model requires growers to buy an enormous amount of air conditioning solely for the purpose of controlling the environment they are putting the lights in,” Troy Robson with Agnetix points out. Agnetix is a company that produces an advanced technology horticultural lighting platform that incorporates LED lights equipped with a water-cooling system that precisely addresses the issue that Troy pointed out. Troy not only works for Agnetix, but he also has a long background as a cannabis grower. “The first problem many greenhouses face is a lack of power. Traditionally, greenhouses have been used to grow incremental crops throughout the year. Increased need for more food and more crops has made the implementation of supplemental lights a standard, rather than a luxury or an extra,” he explains.
Water-cooling system solves energy problems
Agnetix designed its water-cooling system, which not only helps growers control the climate in a more efficient manner, but also solve additional business problems, according to Troy. “By water-cooling our lights, we are able to reduce the heat in the room and the air conditioning load required by 50%. Additionally, by providing a far greater amount of usable full spectrum light for the plants, harvest times can be shortened,” he continues.
Two products that Agnetix offers to growers are the A3 single density light and A3DD (double density). Troy noted: “These solutions can be used for indoor grows and greenhouse facilities. The A3DD has double the number of LEDs than the A3 and light output is increased by about 50%. These can be used to cover a 10’ by 10’ area, whereas the A3 single density covers a 6’ by 6’ area.” Troy remarks: “We can typically use 25-30% fewer fixtures than HPS to provide more light to the same amount of area at the same time reducing the grower’s cost and electricity needs."
The challenges to implement a lighting system
Implementing a lighting system can be a real challenge for growers who, according to Troy, tend to underestimate the amount of light they will require. “People misjudge the amount of light that they actually need to run their facility throughout the year.”
He continues, “Usually, growers struggle to have enough daily light intensity in their facility to grow their plants properly during the winter months. Growers assume they can get enough sun, but the reality is that you don’t, as there can be cloudy days, or storms, that inevitably alter the amount of light getting into the growing facility.”
Troy also pointed out that the Agnetix lighting solution can solve additional business problems through the use of the water-cooling system. “For instance, you are producing a large tank of hot water every day from the lights and that hot water can be used for other applications within the facility such as supplementing the hydronic heating system that a lot of these facilities use during winter times or creating hot water to use in the washing areas.”
In summary, cannabis growers have several challenges as they try to optimize their yields. "The truly unique Agnetix water-cooled system offers growers assurance and more profit per plant by delivering a highly efficient energy-saving solution," Troy concludes.
For more information:
Agnetix
agnetix.com
Publication date: 5/1/2019
Author: Andrea Di Pastena
© MMJDaily.com
Samsung Introduces Benefits of Horticulture LEDs for Vertical Farming
The development of agricultural innovation has become more and more urgent than ever given the factors of increasing world population and global warming. As a result, vertical farming, which serves as a feasible solution to mass produce healthy and safe food, is getting increasingly popular across the world.
Samsung Electronics has launched full-spectrum white-based horticulture LEDs to keep up with the trend of agriculture innovation and underline the advantages of applying LEDs for smart farming approaches such as vertical farm.
Smart farming refers to an intelligent farming system that applies information and communication technologies (ICT) to agriculture. Vertical farming, wherein food is produced in vertically stacked layers, is regarded as a potential future agricultural with several benefits including its economical space and resource usage, environmental-friendly cultivation, and reliable harvesting.
Since Plant photosynthesis, germination and growth all depend on the wavelength of light the plant is exposed to; LED lighting enables optimum lighting conditions for growing any plant with its adjustable wavelength. Different light wavelengths can affect the taste and nutrient content of different types of plants or even the same species, This matching of the right wavelength to the right vegetable is called a ‘lighting recipe’.”
Professor Changhoo Chun, adviser to Samsung’s horticulture LED development and professor at College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, said that Samsung’s white-based horticulture LEDs which blend RGB colors offered a wide spectrum of wavelengths, making it more effective in indoor framing.
(Professor Changhoo Chun; image: Samsung)
He explained, “Growing plants well comes down to providing the right combination of wavelengths specific to each type of plant – from vegetables to fruits to medicinal plants. However, finding the optimum for each type of produce is often time-consuming and costly – a difficult undertaking for most vertical farms.”
Samsung has worked closely with agriculture research teams to find the optimal combination of light wavelengths necessary for peak plant growth. In order to do this, the most in-demand produce from existing plant factories were documented and then experiments on them were conducted with various combinations of light wavelengths. From the results of these trials came Samsung’s lighting solution lineup, including the full-spectrum white-based horticulture LEDs.
Growing The Future: High-Tech Farmers Are Using LED Lights In Ways That Seem To Border On Science Fiction
Mike Zelkind, chief executive of 80 Acres Farms, grows tomatoes and other produce with artificial-light recipes made possible with new LED technology. (Maddie McGarvey for The Washington Post)
By Adrian Higgins Nov. 6, 2018
Mike Zelkind stands at one end of what was once a shipping container and opens the door to the future.
Thousands of young collard greens are growing vigorously under a glow of pink-purple lamps in a scene that seems to have come from a sci-fi movie, or at least a NASA experiment. But Zelkind is at the helm of an earthbound enterprise. He is chief executive of 80 Acres Farms, with a plant factory in an uptown Cincinnati neighborhood where warehouses sit cheek by jowl with detached houses.
Since plants emerged on Earth, they have relied on the light of the sun to feed and grow through the process of photosynthesis.
But Zelkind is part of a radical shift in agriculture — decades in the making — in which plants can be grown commercially without a single sunbeam. A number of technological advances have made this possible, but none more so than innovations in LED lighting.
“What is sunlight from a plant’s perspective?” Zelkind asks. “It’s a bunch of photons.”
Diode lights, which work by passing a current between semiconductors, have come a long way since they showed up in calculator displays in the 1970s. Compared with other forms of electrical illumination, light-emitting diodes use less energy, give off little heat and can be manipulated to optimize plant growth.
In agricultural applications, LED lights are used in ways that seem to border on alchemy, changing how plants grow, when they flower, how they taste and even their levels of vitamins and antioxidants. The lights can also prolong their shelf life.
“People haven’t begun to think about the real impact of what we are doing,” says Zelkind, who is using light recipes to grow, for example, two types of basil from the same plant: sweeter ones for the grocery store and more piquant versions for chefs.
For Zelkind, a former food company executive, his indoor farm and its leading-edge lighting change not just the way plants are grown but also the entire convoluted system of food production, pricing and distribution in the United States.
High-tech plant factories are sprouting across the United States and around the world. Entrepreneurs are drawn to the idea of disrupting the status quo, confronting climate change and playing with a suite of high-tech systems, not least the LED lights. Indoor farming, in sum, is cool.
It has its critics, however, who see it as an agricultural sideshow unlikely to fulfill promises of feeding a growing urbanized population.
Grower David Litvin picks tomatoes at 80 Acres Farms in Cincinnati. The vines grow in a high-tech environment that includes LED lamps with customized light recipes. The plant factory produces 200,000 pounds of leafy greens, vine crops, herbs and microgreens annually in a 12,000-square-foot warehouse. (Maddie McGarvey/For The Washington Post)
Zelkind agrees that some of the expectations are unrealistic, but he offers an energetic pitch: He says his stacked shelves of crops are fresh, raised without pesticides and consumed locally within a day or two of harvest. They require a fraction of the land, water and fertilizers of greens raised in conventional agriculture. He doesn’t need varieties bred for disease resistance over flavor or plants genetically modified to handle the stresses of the field. And his harvest isn’t shipped across the country in refrigerated trucks from farms vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
“We think climate change is making it much more difficult for a lot of farms around the country, around the world,” he says, speaking from his office overlooking a demonstration kitchen for visiting chefs and others.
In addition to shaping the plants, LEDs allow speedy, year-round crop cycles. This permits Zelkind and his team of growers and technicians to produce 200,000 pounds of leafy greens, vine crops, herbs and microgreens annually in a 12,000-square-foot warehouse, an amount that would require 80 acres of farmland (hence the company’s name).
Zelkind says he can grow spinach, for example, in a quarter of the time it takes in a field and half the time in a greenhouse. Growing year-round, no matter the weather outside, he can produce 15 or more crops a year. “Then multiply that by the number of levels and you can see the productivity,” he said.
Zelkind and his business partner, 80 Acres President Tisha Livingston, acquired the abandoned warehouse, added two shipping containers and converted the interior into several growing zones with sophisticated environmental systems that constantly monitor and regulate temperature, humidity, air flow, carbon dioxide levels and crop health. Grown hydroponically, the plant roots are bathed in nutrient-rich water. The moisture and unused nutrients exhaled by the plants are recycled.
But it is the LED lighting that has changed the game. Conventional greenhouses have relied on high-pressure sodium lamps to supplement sunlight, but HPS lights can be ill-suited to solar-free farms because they consume far more power to produce the same light levels. They also throw off too much heat to place near young greens or another favored factory farm crop, microgreens. Greenhouses, still the bulk of enclosed environment agriculture, are moving to a combination of HPS and LED lighting for supplemental lighting, though analysts see a time when they are lit by LEDs alone.
In the past three years, Zelkind says, LED lighting costs have halved, and their efficacy, or light energy, has more than doubled.
Production in the Cincinnati location began in December 2016. In September, the company broke ground on the first phase of a major expansion 30 miles away in Hamilton, Ohio, that will eventually have three fully automated indoor farms totaling 150,000 square feet and a fourth for 30,000 square feet of vine crops in a converted factory. (The company also has indoor growing operations in Alabama, North Carolina and Arkansas, which acted as proving grounds for the technology.)
“We feel the time is right for us to make the leap because the lighting efficiency is there,” Livingston says.
Grower Julie Flickner inspects kale at 80 Acres Farms. Growing year-round, no matter the weather outside, the vertical farm can produce 15 or more crops annually. The produce is sold in Cincinnati-area grocery stores and restaurants. (Maddie McGarvey/For The Washington Post)
The visible spectrum is measured in minuscule wavelengths, shifting at one end from violet-blue light through green to red at the other. For decades, scientists have known that photosynthesis is optimized within the red band, but plants also need blue lightwaves to prevent stretching and enhance leaf color. A barely visible range beyond red, known as far red, promotes larger leaves, branching and flowering. With advances in LED technology, light recipes — determining the number of hours illuminated, the intensity of photons directed at plants and the mix of colors — can be finely tuned to each crop and even to each stage in a crop’s life.
Given the evolving nature of the technology and its enormous commercial potential, light manufacturers and universities, often in collaboration, are actively involved in research and development.
“We have a completely new era of research,” says Leo Marcelis, a horticulture professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Tweaking light recipes has allowed researchers to manipulate crops in a way never seen before. In the lab, chrysanthemums have been forced into bloom without the traditional practice of curtailing their daily exposure to daylight. This will allow growers to produce bigger plants in flower.
“It’s to do with playing around with the blue light at the right moment of the day,” Marcelis says. “Its internal clock is affected differently, so it doesn’t completely recognize it’s still day. There are so many amazing responses of the plant to the light.”
Lettuce, for example, likes as much as 18 hours of light per day, but basil prefers brighter light for 15 hours, says Celine Nicole, a researcher for Signify, formerly Philips Lighting. “Every plant has its own preference,” says Nicole, who conducts research at the company’s high-tech campus in Eindhoven, Netherlands. She has already tested 600 types of lettuce.
Although the permutations are still under study, the sun suddenly seems so analog. “The spectrum from sunlight isn’t necessarily the best or most desirable for plants,” says Erik Runkle, a plant scientist at Michigan State University. “I think we can produce a better plant” with LED lights, he says. “The question becomes: Can you do it in a way that is cost-effective considering the cost of plants indoors?”
“People haven’t begun to think about the real impact of what we are doing.”
Mike Zelkind, chief executive of 80 Acres Farms
The answer seems to be yes. LED light shipments to growers worldwide are expected to grow at an annual average rate of 32 percent until 2027, according to a market report by analysts with Navigant Research in Boulder, Colo. Shipments of LED lights will overtake those of legacy lights starting next year, says Krystal Maxwell, who wrote the report with Courtney Marshall.
Most of the growth will be as supplemental lighting in greenhouses, but vertical farms are seen as an alternative production system that will develop alongside greenhouses, not displace them, Marcelis says.
Runkle estimates there are 40 or more vertical farms in the United States, and new ones are opening every year with the help of deep-pocketed investors. In some of the biggest deals, AeroFarms, headquartered in Newark, last year raised a reported $40 million. Plenty, a grower based in South San Francisco, raised $200 million in 2017 for a global network of vertical farms. (One of the backers is a venture capital firm created by Amazon founder Jeffrey P. Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post.)
Zelkind declined to reveal his capital costs, but for start-up entrepreneurs, LED-driven vertical farms can be one of the most lucrative forms of agriculture. “Based on manufacturers and growers I have talked to, that’s where the money is,” Marshall says.
Critics argue that a lot of the hype around indoor farming is unwarranted, saying it won’t fulfill promises of feeding an increasingly urbanized planet and reverse the environmental harm of industrialized agriculture, not least because most staples, such as corn, wheat and rice, cannot be grown viably indoors.
Also, to build enough indoor farms for millions, or billions, of people would be absurdly expensive.
Runkle says vertical farming “shouldn’t be considered as a way to solve most of our world’s food problems.” But it is a viable way of producing consistently high-quality, and high-value, greens and other plants year-round.
Zelkind says what he’s doing may be novel, but it’s just one component of how we feed ourselves in this century. “We shouldn’t overblow what we do. Eventually it’s going to become more important, but vertical farming alone isn’t the cure-all.”
He adds, however, that “there’s no reason today to ship leafy greens from California to Ohio.”
Livingston likens LED-raised food to the advent of smartphones. “Five years from now everyone is going to be living with indoor farming and wonder how we did without it,” she says.
David Litvin, left, inspects vine crops while farm operations tech Devon Brown prepares labels for retail packaging. (Maddie McGarvey/For The Washington Post)
Additional credits:
Lettering by Craig Ward for The Washington Post; animation by Sarah Hashemi; photo editing by Annaliese Nurnberg; design and development by Elizabeth Hart.
Valoya To Host The LEDs & Innovators Conference At GreenTech Again
At last year’s GreenTech, Valoya hosted its first educational event titled LEDs & Innovators Conference 2018. The event gathered some of the most prominent names in crop science, vertical farming and medical plants industries as speakers. These include Richard Ballard of the infamous Growing Underground farm in London and Dr. Giovanni Minuto, the director of the esteemed agricultural research institute CeRSAA, from Italy.
Valoya announces the second edition of this event, to be held on June 12th, the second day of this year’s GreenTech. The conference is tailored to industry professionals interested in deepening their knowledge in matters of lighting for crop science, medical plants cultivation and vertical farming fields. Additionally, this is an opportunity to hear first-hand cultivation experiences from experts as well as network with industry peers.
LEDs & Innovators Conference 2019
The Program
10:15 – 11:15 Crop Science and Light
Stefanie Linzer, Biologist, Valoya
High Quality White LED Light for Crop Science Applications
11.15 – 11.30 Break
11:30 – 12:30 Hard Science Talk on Medicinal Cannabis
Dr. Gianpaolo Grassi, Head Researcher, CREA-CI, Italy
How Does the Light Spectrum Affect the Terpene Profile of Cannabis?
12.30 – 13.00 Break
13:00 – 14:30 Vertical Farming Innovators Panel
Mark Korzilius, Co-Founder & CEO, Farmers Cut, Germany
Gus van der Feltz, Chairman, Farm Tech Society
Henry Gordon-Smith, Managing Director, Agritecture
Lars Aikala, CEO, Valoya
From last year’s LEDs & Innovators Conference at GreenTech
The conference is free of charge, however the number of seats is limited. Participants need to register on Valoya’s website after which they will go through a selection process and will be notified if they can participate in the conference.
The sign-up form and more information about the event is available here.
Valoya is also to host a webinar titled Transitioning to White LED Light in Crop Science, What You Need to Know on May 24th at 14.00 CET. The webinar is aimed at researchers trying to understand if and why they should to move ahead to LED technology in the coming future. It will be hosted by Valoya’s Biologist, Ms. Stefanie Linzer who has more than a decade of biology expertise and has helped Valoya develop some of its patented spectra which illuminate the chambers of the world’s largest agricultural companies, research institutes and universities. The attendance is free of charge.
To sign up, please click here.
About Valoya Oy
Valoya is a provider of high end, energy efficient LED grow lights for use in crop science, vertical farming and medical plants cultivation. Valoya LED grow lights have been developed using Valoya's proprietary LED technology and extensive plant photobiology research. Valoya's customer base includes numerous vertical farms, greenhouses and research institutions all over the world (including 8 out of 10 world’s largest agricultural companies).
Additional information:
Valoya Oy, Finland
Tel: +358 10 2350300
Email: sales@valoya.com
Web: www.valoya.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valoyafi/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/valoya
![[Going Green 2] How Samsung is Helping To Take Healthy Food From Farm To Table](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c8695d5016e11e71be1d83/1556172575017-JOO4JU04IDLYDU13K3NE/index.jpg)
[Going Green 2] How Samsung is Helping To Take Healthy Food From Farm To Table
April 25, 2019
As awareness of environmental issues grows, the impacts of the agricultural industry and our own personal food consumption are of increasing public concern. The use of pesticides, herbicides and other resources are falling out of favor and more efficient methods of food production are being explored as we strive to cultivate healthier food. Samsung Electronics is contributing to these efforts, developing technologies that can reduce the environmental impact of growing healthy food.
Horticulture LED Driving the Future of Farming
On the industrial scale, indoor farms are increasing in popularity, since they are better equipped to overcome spatial constraints and extreme climates. In such indoor farms, artificial light plays a crucial role in efficiently managing the rate of plant growth.
Drawing upon its LED technologies developed for other lighting markets, Samsung launched its Horticulture LED lineup in May of last year to provide advanced lighting solutions to indoor farms. LED lighting is more efficient and has a longer lifespan than previously existing artificial lighting solutions. It is also easy to control the light spectrum of LED lighting and LED solutions are becoming a more attractive option for indoor farms.
Samsung’s Horticulture LED Package and module
Different wavelengths of light can affect plants in different ways. For example, wavelengths of 430 to 700 nanometers are required for photosynthesis, a wavelength of 450 nanometers promotes germination, 660 nanometers stimulates growth, and 730 nanometers or more helps plants to bloom and produce fruits. It’s thanks to these properties that red wavelengths (about 600~750 nanometers) and blue wavelengths (about 400~450 nanometers) have been the prevailing trend in indoor farms.
Recent developments have also emphasized the importance of green light with a wavelength of 550 nanometers, with findings that it can penetrate the lower canopy and thus increase the photosynthesis in plants found there. Since this was observed, interaction with a blue wavelength is now actively being studied also.
Based on this research, Samsung released its White LED package last November, with an extensive spectral range, including growth-boosting blue and red wavelengths. Full-spectrum LED lights can increase the nutritional value of plants and deter disease and pests. The bright white light can also create a more pleasant work environment than narrow spectrum alternatives, allowing farmers to monitor growth and inspect for disease with relative ease.
The package is designed to deliver strong reliability, even alongside the use of chemical fertilizers or under hot and humid conditions. The package is also competitive in price when compared to red LED products, helping to reduce the cost of establishing lighting systems in indoor farms.
Samsung raised the photon efficacy level of white LED packages to the highest in the industry, thus reconfirming the company’s leadership in this field. As a result, lighting manufacturers can use 30 percent fewer packages in each luminaire to achieve the same efficacy level as other lighting equipment, ultimately reducing the costs for indoor farms.
Packages can be selected according to the types of plants and the facility’s requirements. Samsung Electronics offers five white LED packages and one white LED module. The company has also designed one blue package and two red packages with a single wavelength.
As Will Chung, a researcher in the company’s Lighting Marketing Group (LED), explained, “Although it’s been less than two years since Samsung Electronics started its horticulture LED business, we’ve already received lots of positive feedback from the market for developing high-quality LED technologies. “We’re committed to developing more innovative products that support convenient food production, and will continue to enhance our offerings with testing, studies, and experts’ advice.”
Grow Your Own
In the homes of the future, it will be possible to grow your own vegetables no matter the climate. Samsung recently showcased Chef Garden at KBIS 2019, an AI farming platform that integrates with the next generation of Family Hub. The smart indoor garden uses seed capsules, allowing people to grow small fruits, vegetables and herbs with only a small part of the plant. Chef Garden controls light, temperature and humidity to optimize plant growth. The system also utilizes fogponics technology, which creates a nutrient fog that delivers water and nutrients directly to the plants so that they can grow without the need for pesticides. With water kept to the minimum required, the inside of Chef Garden always remains clean. Chef Garden can also inform users when plants are ready to harvest and recommend recipes thanks to smart integration with Family Hub.
Fruitful Investments and Research
Samsung is supporting research and development in fields such as basic sciences, materials science and ICT through the Samsung Science and Technology Foundation. Samsung has funded 500 project grants for the Korean scientific community to explore since 2013, amongst which are technology research projects examining vertical farming and the acceleration of plant growth. In addition, it is expected that further discoveries garnered from ICT projects involving AI, IoT and LEDs will foster synergy between Samsung’s technology and industrial farming’s efforts to produce healthy food.
“One of the main objectives of this support project is to consider how technology might solve the environmental and food shortage problems society faces today,” said Doochan Daniel Eum, Head of the Samsung Research & Incubation Center for Future Technology. “It’s our intention to contribute a total of 1.5 trillion Korean Won (approximately 1.3 billion USD) by 2023, investing in technologies that can effect real change for future society.”
Artificial Lighting Solutions Going Green Healthy Food horticulture LED Indoor Farms LED lighting LED Solutions White LED Package