Sign up here to subscribe to the Grower2grower Ezine. Every two weeks you will receive new articles, specific to the protected cropping industry, informing you of industry news and events straight to your inbox.
Jul 2020
Greenhouse Energy
Heat Pump (part 2)
Last month I posted an article relating to heat-pump-technology. You don’t have to look hard in the media to find some amazing stories. There are incredible opportunities using waste heat to create energy systems that can aid greenhouse crops to grow.
Below is an extract sourced from the BBC website explaining the project currently being constructed in East Anglia, England. My question is….Are there opportunities to find suitable sites in NZ for this type of project/system?
Low carbon farming; it is workable but as I keep lobbying for, business cases need to happen first. Without modelling to determine how or if particular systems are feasible for current greenhouse locations – it may never be fully understood. Unless the private sector is willing to pay for a business case study into different possibilities, to replace current energy systems, it may never come to pass. It would be out of the financial reach for many greenhouse growing companies to independently commission a project of this size. Wouldn’t it be great for growers, dependent on coal, if contributions already paid to ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) could fund independent business case studies into potential low carbon energy solutions? I wonder how other countries go about this?
news/post/heat-pump-technology-/
Hi-tech greenhouses to supply UK stores with food
Waste heat generated from water treatment plants will be harnessed and used to keep commercial greenhouses warm in the UK in a world-first.
Heat will be extracted from the treated water and then pumped via an enclosed loop system to the greenhouse.
Conventional commercial greenhouses might use fossil fuels as a source of heat so this method also reduces the project's carbon emissions.
The first two greenhouses to use this waste heat are currently being constructed in East Anglia and are due to be completed later this year.
BBC Click’s Jen Copestake speaks to Low Carbon Farming’s Neil Lawson to find out more.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-53178463/hi-tech-greenhouses-to-supply-uk-stores-with-food
Heating may take on a new look if new technology is feasible.