Writer: Minal Jain

The idea of growing plants in environmentally controlled areas, like a greenhouse system, has existed since Roman times. The Roman emperor Tiberius ate a cucumber-like vegetable daily, whereby the cucumbers were planted in wheeled carts which were put in the sun daily, then taken inside to keep them warm at night.

A Greenhouse system helps to shield crops from excess cold, heat and unwanted pests and makes it possible to grow certain types of crops, fruits, vegetables all year round. Hence it is a viable solution to feed the ever growing population with increased food production, also in areas where the environment is extremely harsh.

Commercial greenhouses typically produce plants in large volume for consumers. Because of the transparent nature of a greenhouse, keeping the heat and insulation, especially in colder climates, becomes cash and resource expensive. Non-renewable resources like oil and natural gas are consumed to build electric furnaces and convective heaters, which are very energy intensive and have high environmental impacts.

The good news is, there have been a lot of innovations and strides made towards making the Greenhouse more eco-friendly with efficient use of energy and reducing the use of fresh water and electricity.

One such company, SOLHO, has developed an energy system called SPRHOUT (Solar Powered Horticultural Off-grid Unit). The SPRHOUT system operates harvesting solar energy in the solar field and storing it in the form of heat in their thermal storage unit called TESMOD. The stored energy is withdrawn when needed to heat up the greenhouse and/or to be converted into cooling by means of a thermal driven chiller and/or to be converted into electricity by means of the power unit. The SPRHOUT features a backup unit (a biogas or fossil fuel burner) which makes up for missing solar input, providing continuous power generation.

Their vision is to provide environmentally sustainable food system. We surely hope that this vision can be fulfilled.

Source:
https://www.researchgate.net
https://www.cnbc.com
https://www.solho.eu
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6443746.pdf

Image Source:
https://www.solho.eu

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