GE provides LED horticultural lighting systems for large UK farms

At present, GE announced a new LED lighting vertical farm project in the United Kingdom, which provided Curie with a linear Arize horticultural lighting device.

The project will include 5,120 square meters of planting area and is expected to produce 420 metric tons (about 926,000 pounds) of green leafy vegetables each year. The farm, built by Jones Foods Ltd. (JFC) and located in North Lincolnshire, England, will begin commercial cultivation this fall. Vertical farm-grown shelves can extend up to 11 meters or 3 floors high. Current will install a 12.3 km linear Arize LED strip, which is equivalent to 38 Eiffel Towers connected end to end.

Due to the size of the project, Jones chose to work with Current. James Lloyd-Jones, JFC's CEO and co-founder, said: “No one has yet been able to industrialize indoor and high-care food production methods to prove that it is truly commercially viable.” “We know that lighting will become with the lifeline of facility agriculture, we need a potential partner and work with us to develop the right lighting equipment and spectrum to achieve this vision.”

The new farm will produce green leafy vegetables throughout the year, and LED light can minimize the growth cycle. Current did not disclose the details of the spectrum, but it is said that the red part has been enhanced.

Through the three-layer cultivation frame and environmental control technology, each factor of crop growth, such as the concentration of nutrient solution directly delivered to the root of the plant, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the room, the wavelength range and duration of the fill light, will all be available. Will be strictly controlled.

As the supporting crop grows is a brewed nutrient solution and plant cultivation equipment is also located in the so-called "high care environment", it means a clean room-like environment. This will ensure safe food production and allow Jones to provide varieties to cosmetics and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

It is worth mentioning that the entire operation process is under the responsibility of robots, which means that these plants will not be contaminated by human contact. At the same time, the farm can achieve the entire process from planting to harvesting without the need for labor. Jones expressed that in the traditional green leaves there may be 13 forms of human-plant interaction during growth.

As in vertical agriculture, production occurs close to consumers, minimizing transportation costs and environmental impact. JFC said that compared to traditional farms, the project will reduce water use by 90%.

Recently, the news of the construction of LED plant factories and the application of LED lighting to farms and greenhouses has been heard all over the world. For example, Signify recently announced that Agro-Inwest, Russia's largest vegetable cultivating company for LED horticultural lighting projects, will expand Philips LED plant lighting. The application of the system has been expanded from 25 hectares to 68.5 hectares, equivalent to the greenhouse area of 100 football fields. The 2018 Green Tech, the world's top horticultural exposition held in the Netherlands, has also focused on modern agriculture, with a marked increase in agricultural lighting exhibitors. 100% of the LED has become the director of the new greenhouse lighting field.