Articles
Examining disruptive lighting protocols for improving energy use efficiency of indoor farming facilities
Article number
1437_40
Pages
311 – 318
Language
English
Abstract
Indoor horticulture demands a significant amount of electricity consumption in order to cover the long photoperiodic requirements of crops for optimum photosynthetic rate.
Simultaneously, in global scale the electricity cost has risen significantly the last years, jeopardizing the sustainability and profitability of indoor vertical farms and/or advanced greenhouses that use artificial lighting systems to increase the development and growth rate of crops.
This study examines the growth rate and physiological development of cherry tomato plants grown in a pilot indoor vertical farm located at the Laboratory of Farm Structures at Agricultural University of Athens (AUA), under continuous and intermittent lighting intervals.
The leaf physiological traits of the two different photoperiodic stress treatments were assessed and used to estimate the toleration rate of the plants under different lighting schemes.
Four different photoperiodic treatments were examined, in the first-control one, plants grew under 14 h of continuous light, in the first stress treatment plants grew under a normalized photoperiod of 14 h with intermittent light intervals of 10 min of light followed by 50 min of dark, in the second stress treatment plants grew under 14 h of a load-shifted energy demand response intermittent lighting schedule and the fourth treatment plants grew under 13 h of a load-shifted energy demand response intermittent lighting schedule.
The purpose was to examine, assess and design flexible disruptive light exposure to reduce the compact electricity consumption for crops grown in indoor environments with more flexible protocols while maintaining a high growth rate and biomass production of the plants.
The presented results of this experiment show a positive correlation of the plants’ responses to abiotic stress when exposed to short light periods of disruptive light, without having significant effects on the physiological responses of the crop.
Postharvest measurements revealed that plants under intermittent lighting protocols produced almost double fresh and dry biomass compared to plants under continuous photoperiod, while operated under a more flexible lighting schedule that could act as a load shifted energy demand response units and operated under the most profitable and ecological energy schemes.
Simultaneously, in global scale the electricity cost has risen significantly the last years, jeopardizing the sustainability and profitability of indoor vertical farms and/or advanced greenhouses that use artificial lighting systems to increase the development and growth rate of crops.
This study examines the growth rate and physiological development of cherry tomato plants grown in a pilot indoor vertical farm located at the Laboratory of Farm Structures at Agricultural University of Athens (AUA), under continuous and intermittent lighting intervals.
The leaf physiological traits of the two different photoperiodic stress treatments were assessed and used to estimate the toleration rate of the plants under different lighting schemes.
Four different photoperiodic treatments were examined, in the first-control one, plants grew under 14 h of continuous light, in the first stress treatment plants grew under a normalized photoperiod of 14 h with intermittent light intervals of 10 min of light followed by 50 min of dark, in the second stress treatment plants grew under 14 h of a load-shifted energy demand response intermittent lighting schedule and the fourth treatment plants grew under 13 h of a load-shifted energy demand response intermittent lighting schedule.
The purpose was to examine, assess and design flexible disruptive light exposure to reduce the compact electricity consumption for crops grown in indoor environments with more flexible protocols while maintaining a high growth rate and biomass production of the plants.
The presented results of this experiment show a positive correlation of the plants’ responses to abiotic stress when exposed to short light periods of disruptive light, without having significant effects on the physiological responses of the crop.
Postharvest measurements revealed that plants under intermittent lighting protocols produced almost double fresh and dry biomass compared to plants under continuous photoperiod, while operated under a more flexible lighting schedule that could act as a load shifted energy demand response units and operated under the most profitable and ecological energy schemes.
Publication
Authors
D.D. Avgoustaki, A. Giakoumatos, G.A. Kaliamanis, K. Akrivopoulou, V. Vevelakis, S. Kalogeropoulos, T. Bartzanas
Keywords
indoor horticulture, photoperiod, intermittent lighting, cherry tomato, physiology
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