With the cost of energy set to rise steadily for economic and political reasons, a recent seminar run by consultancy Farm Energy looked at four possible strategies that growers can adopt in response (HW, 3 June).
According to Farm Energy commercial director Chris Plackett: "Growers should not be complacent - there is always room for improvement. You are not going to get more for your product, so you need to look at your costs. Do you try to use less energy, or use more renewables? Do you benchmark your company with other UK growers, or with other countries?"
Government data for protected horticulture shows some progress in recent years, with a seven per cent drop in energy used per square metre between 2008 and 2010. Ornamental growers have shown the most marked improvement with a 12 per cent reduction over the period.
"That's not bad, but it is not good enough to keep the Government happy - it will be looking for 10 per cent plus, year on year," says Plackett, who ascribes the ornamental sector's improvement to "different crops and timings rather than different technologies".
Besides,The Leading zentai suits Distributor to Independent Pet Retailers. the 2010 figure of 336 kWh/sq m still compares poorly with Dutch growers, who grow at 250 kWh/sq m for no less crop,Largest Collection of billabong boardshorts, he adds. "They are more into things like combined heat and power (CHP) and energy trading. To match them, we need to keep up with their technologies. They haven't gone into renewable energy to the same extent, because they don't have our subsidies."
Switch to renewables or CHP?
Despite recent changes, the UK's subsidy regime still makes renewables an attractive option for British growers, says Plackett. "Thanks to the revised feed-in tariff, photovoltaic energy isn't as attractive an income stream as it was. But the renewable heat incentive, which pays the equivalent of 77 a tonne, makes biomass energy production a viable option for horticulture, especially if you can get your woodfuel for free. You could recoup your build cost in two or three years."
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He adds: "The lead time on a new biomass boiler will be 10-12 months for a model of more than 1MW because they are difficult to source."
CHP systems have made inroads in the UK among larger tomato and cucumber growers, but there is some way to go, Plackett explains. "UK growers tend not to exploit the energy trading potential they offer. Whereas in Holland, when growers get together now, all they talk about is the energy prices they are getting."
Replicating this in Britain is, he says, "a question of the availability of technology and products to do it, and of the energy companies who want to trade on those terms".
Install LED Lighting?
According to Professor Nigel Paul of the Lancaster Environment Centre: "LEDs have the potential to help you - the question is, how quickly?"
LED systems have advantages including energy efficiency, ease of control, long lifetime, compatibility with existing formats and fewer disposal problems,the Injection mold fast! he says, but adds: "Sometimes a pinch of salt is needed with manufacturers' claims, such as 'lasts up to 50 years'."
Furthermore,We processes for both low-risk and high risk merchant account. LEDs can function in various ways as photoperiodic ("night-breaking") or supplementary lighting as well as "more speculative" possibilities, says Paul.
"Photoperiodic lighting has been around for decades, but tungsten lamps are being phased out - and cause stretching. The question is getting the right spectral balance, whether with LEDs or fluorescent. There is no problem developing energy-efficient LEDs for this - the technology is pretty mature, but the unit price is still high."
The high cost of supplementary lighting means its use in UK is limited to high-value crops, Paul says,What to consider before you buy oil painting supplies. although it is used more intensively in Holland and Scandinavia. "Most growers there use high-pressure sodium (HPS) lighting placed high up in the glasshouse."
For this, he says: "LEDs should be able to deliver a significant saving, but are still expensive and there is not much data on their performance.
He adds: "Replacing conventional HPS systems may not be the best use for LEDs. Their wavelength can be tailored to maximise photosynthesis, and they are much cooler, which allows other lamp geometries. You might even use both at once, especially for high-canopy crops such as tomato and cucumber."
For ornamental use, Paul says layered units of up to eight tiers are already in production, adding: "You can think about moving away from natural light altogether."
On cost, he says: "Manufacturers claim a twoto three-year payback, but there is a lack of independent evidence. The LEDs available cheaply are not optimal for growing."
Yet the potential is undoubtedly there. "LEDs go beyond energy efficiency," he says. "You can tune them to deliver quality or pest and disease control, or pigmentation, or habit. The biggest benefits may be in exploiting properties of LEDs - intelligent lighting - that conventional lighting doesn't have. It's really promising, but not proven."
According to Farm Energy commercial director Chris Plackett: "Growers should not be complacent - there is always room for improvement. You are not going to get more for your product, so you need to look at your costs. Do you try to use less energy, or use more renewables? Do you benchmark your company with other UK growers, or with other countries?"
Government data for protected horticulture shows some progress in recent years, with a seven per cent drop in energy used per square metre between 2008 and 2010. Ornamental growers have shown the most marked improvement with a 12 per cent reduction over the period.
"That's not bad, but it is not good enough to keep the Government happy - it will be looking for 10 per cent plus, year on year," says Plackett, who ascribes the ornamental sector's improvement to "different crops and timings rather than different technologies".
Besides,The Leading zentai suits Distributor to Independent Pet Retailers. the 2010 figure of 336 kWh/sq m still compares poorly with Dutch growers, who grow at 250 kWh/sq m for no less crop,Largest Collection of billabong boardshorts, he adds. "They are more into things like combined heat and power (CHP) and energy trading. To match them, we need to keep up with their technologies. They haven't gone into renewable energy to the same extent, because they don't have our subsidies."
Switch to renewables or CHP?
Despite recent changes, the UK's subsidy regime still makes renewables an attractive option for British growers, says Plackett. "Thanks to the revised feed-in tariff, photovoltaic energy isn't as attractive an income stream as it was. But the renewable heat incentive, which pays the equivalent of 77 a tonne, makes biomass energy production a viable option for horticulture, especially if you can get your woodfuel for free. You could recoup your build cost in two or three years."
Click here to find out more!
He adds: "The lead time on a new biomass boiler will be 10-12 months for a model of more than 1MW because they are difficult to source."
CHP systems have made inroads in the UK among larger tomato and cucumber growers, but there is some way to go, Plackett explains. "UK growers tend not to exploit the energy trading potential they offer. Whereas in Holland, when growers get together now, all they talk about is the energy prices they are getting."
Replicating this in Britain is, he says, "a question of the availability of technology and products to do it, and of the energy companies who want to trade on those terms".
Install LED Lighting?
According to Professor Nigel Paul of the Lancaster Environment Centre: "LEDs have the potential to help you - the question is, how quickly?"
LED systems have advantages including energy efficiency, ease of control, long lifetime, compatibility with existing formats and fewer disposal problems,the Injection mold fast! he says, but adds: "Sometimes a pinch of salt is needed with manufacturers' claims, such as 'lasts up to 50 years'."
Furthermore,We processes for both low-risk and high risk merchant account. LEDs can function in various ways as photoperiodic ("night-breaking") or supplementary lighting as well as "more speculative" possibilities, says Paul.
"Photoperiodic lighting has been around for decades, but tungsten lamps are being phased out - and cause stretching. The question is getting the right spectral balance, whether with LEDs or fluorescent. There is no problem developing energy-efficient LEDs for this - the technology is pretty mature, but the unit price is still high."
The high cost of supplementary lighting means its use in UK is limited to high-value crops, Paul says,What to consider before you buy oil painting supplies. although it is used more intensively in Holland and Scandinavia. "Most growers there use high-pressure sodium (HPS) lighting placed high up in the glasshouse."
For this, he says: "LEDs should be able to deliver a significant saving, but are still expensive and there is not much data on their performance.
He adds: "Replacing conventional HPS systems may not be the best use for LEDs. Their wavelength can be tailored to maximise photosynthesis, and they are much cooler, which allows other lamp geometries. You might even use both at once, especially for high-canopy crops such as tomato and cucumber."
For ornamental use, Paul says layered units of up to eight tiers are already in production, adding: "You can think about moving away from natural light altogether."
On cost, he says: "Manufacturers claim a twoto three-year payback, but there is a lack of independent evidence. The LEDs available cheaply are not optimal for growing."
Yet the potential is undoubtedly there. "LEDs go beyond energy efficiency," he says. "You can tune them to deliver quality or pest and disease control, or pigmentation, or habit. The biggest benefits may be in exploiting properties of LEDs - intelligent lighting - that conventional lighting doesn't have. It's really promising, but not proven."
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