AgTech Innovation News

Greenhouse climate and energy use are inseparably linked. Every change in greenhouse climate affects energy consumption, and vice versa.

Known energy solutions,

The advanced simulation software of Certhon enables growers to calculate growing concepts and accurately predict the impact of climate and energy interventions on crops. By connecting and renovating existing installations and developing new systems, they can ensure their solutions to meet the demands of tomorrow. Think of energy solutions like heat pumps to extract heat from the air or ground, or geothermal heat utilizing the earth’s natural heat, and of course thermal storage systems to store heat in the summer and use it in the winter. These solutions work extremely well on their own, but when combining these solutions and integrating them with other systems in your greenhouse, you are able to reduce the energy costs tremendously.

Extremely precise insights and control, at all time

Another way to improve resource use efficiency is with data, software and insights. Jaap Weerheim, Technical Consultant at Certhon explains: “By knowing precisely when and how much light, water, and CO2 a plant needs, you can create optimal growing conditions for the plant.” For example, real-time insights into transpiration, combined with photosynthesis allows the grower to set up their crops in the most energy-efficient way possible and improve the production, as well as optimizing watering and preventing diseases and pests.

About 3.5 years ago, they started to develop algorithms for measuring photosynthesis and transpiration. This was done by combining data from multiple measurements in the climate chambers of the Certhon Innovation Centre, such as temperature, light intensity, CO2 level and humidity, data on the chamber volume and the leakage rate of the chambers. “The data collected by all sensors are logged on a 15-second basis with the Certhon Control System. This data contains a wealth of information, which is immediately accessible for growers using our dashboard,” says Weerheim.

Source: https://www.greetech.com/