Articles
ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF GREENHOUSE COOLING SYSTEMS IN SOUTHERN SPAIN
Article number
719_22
Pages
211 – 214
Language
English
Abstract
In recent years there has been an expansion in protected horticulture in Mediterranean countries.
This expansion has resulted in important economic advances, especially for marginal areas.
Searching to improve yields and production quality, some growers have introduced different climate management systems such as cooling, forced ventilation and fog systems.
However, the incorporation of this equipment has led to an increase in the consumption of energy and other resources.
The aim of this paper is to quantify the environmental impact, investment and yield necessary to justify this major investment in energy and materials from an environmental and economic point of view.
A naturally ventilated greenhouse with a sweet pepper crop was taken as a reference.
Life Cycle Assessment tools were used to evaluate the environmental performance of the different cooling systems.
We evaluated impact categories such as energy consumption, climate change and the depletion of non-renewable resources.
Our results showed that the incorporation of cooling control equipments could generally only be justified, from an environmental and economic point of view, by an increase in production that was not always possible to achieve in our climate conditions.
Forced ventilation had the greatest impact upon most of the environmental categories.
Furthermore, improving natural ventilation by increasing the opening surface of the ventilators could represent an efficient way of supplying more environmental friendly produce.
This expansion has resulted in important economic advances, especially for marginal areas.
Searching to improve yields and production quality, some growers have introduced different climate management systems such as cooling, forced ventilation and fog systems.
However, the incorporation of this equipment has led to an increase in the consumption of energy and other resources.
The aim of this paper is to quantify the environmental impact, investment and yield necessary to justify this major investment in energy and materials from an environmental and economic point of view.
A naturally ventilated greenhouse with a sweet pepper crop was taken as a reference.
Life Cycle Assessment tools were used to evaluate the environmental performance of the different cooling systems.
We evaluated impact categories such as energy consumption, climate change and the depletion of non-renewable resources.
Our results showed that the incorporation of cooling control equipments could generally only be justified, from an environmental and economic point of view, by an increase in production that was not always possible to achieve in our climate conditions.
Forced ventilation had the greatest impact upon most of the environmental categories.
Furthermore, improving natural ventilation by increasing the opening surface of the ventilators could represent an efficient way of supplying more environmental friendly produce.
Publication
Authors
A. Anton, J.I. Montero, P. Munoz, J. Pérez-Parra, E. Baeza, T. Soriano, I. Escobar, J. Hernandez, N. Castilla
Keywords
forced ventilation, fog system, life cycle assessment
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