Temperature and lighting precondition in greenhouses need to be as uniform as potential for crops to prosper . For this reasonableness , commercial-grade greenhouse operator generally have to spend a corking mass of money on heating , climate control , and shadowing .
The Dutch companionship Technokas has developed a solution : their Daylight Greenhouse not only consumes less resource than a traditional greenhouse — but it reap energy as well . The engineering also eliminates the pauperism for an extra shading system .
The cap of the Daylight Greenhouse offer an option to other system that protect greenhouses from the Lord’s Day . It collects direct sun in the Plexiglas Fresnel lenses , leave the interior of the nursery bath in uniform , diffuse brightness level , which has a positive effect on plant growth . Source : Technokas
“ schematic greenhouse can not use the full radiation vigor of the sun . A significant portion of the provide energy is lost , ” say Hans van Tilborgh , one of the three do directors of Technokas , which has been design and implementing glasshouse construction project , climate control system , and business installation in the Netherlands for 26 years .
expert know only a portion of the sun light is used by the industrial plant to spring up . “ The first thing we thus necessitate ourselves was , ‘ How do we make use of the excess vim that a nursery absorbs but can not otherwise utilize ? ’ ” Van Tilborgh recall . The answer ? A canopy that collects the direct sunlight and exchange it to Energy Department . The diffuse part of the light passes through the roofing and is made available for serious plant maturation . The Daylight Greenhouse estimation was born .
Harvesting energyMore than a decennary was ask for the engineers at Technokas to develop the initial idea into serial publication - production eagerness . A unequalled roof grammatical construction consisting of well - insulate , dual - glazed panel with embed Fresnel lenses is the heart of the new coevals of greenhouse . The lenses focus the sunlight onto a accumulator climb up on a 2 - axis of rotation Dominicus tracker , which in turn converts the light vigour to thermic vigor . “ The conception would n’t work without the interaction between the various components , ” Van Tilborgh explains . “ The harvested muscularity in terminal figure of red-hot water is then stored and used for warming during night hour or winter months . ”
A roofing instrument panel bill more or less 2,60 x 1,67 metre and consist of 16 lens panels . Each of these panels contains infinite lines of small Fresnel lens made of Plexiglas . informant : Technokas
In improver to the exploitation of a transferable solar gatherer that tracks the social movement of the sun , another technological challenge was the innovation of the Lens , Van Tilborgh recalls . “ The lens system textile had to be able to collect and focus the direct sunlight , without absorbing diffuse sunlight which is required by the plants . ” After testing a few dissimilar materials , the clear choice was acrylic , particularly Plexiglas Solar . injectant - molded lenses made from Plexiglas are manufactured by the plastics medical specialist at Pekago Covering Technology . “ We decide on Plexiglas because it carry light highly well and offer long - condition stability — especially compared to other plastics , ” Van Tilborgh explains . Plexiglas Solar is a strength molding compound that has been modified to communicate the wavelength of Christ Within that plants require for their growth , while at the same time tender even high UV constancy . “ That have in mind it will hold its high light transmission for decennary , ” mention Peter Battenhausen , Senior Business Manager at Evonik . “ Plus , Plexiglas is capable of reproducing surfaces with tremendous precision , and without that we would n’t even have been able to bring about the extremely precise , 1,25 mm prism social organization . ”
Proving its meritThe first Daylight Greenhouse , which hide an surface area of 4,000 square meters , was completed in the Netherlands in 2014 and is operate by Ter Laak Orchids . The company was so positive that it immediately put another greenhouse in cognitive process in the summer of 2018 — more than ten time larger than the first . “ In our new greenhouse we ’re save 40 pct of our warming costs , and the nursery produces just about half of the Energy Department we want all by itself , ” sound out Richard ter Laak , Managing director of Ter Laak Orchids . “ Moreover , the climate in the glasshouse is more unvarying , which entail we turn a loss fewer plants to disease and fungus . ” The glasshouse function without extra shadowing which is a huge welfare in the winter month , where up to 40 percentage more diffuse sun finds its way to the plants . “ That ’s perfect for our orchids , ” says Ter Laak .
Movable collectors — bleak painted pipes fill with water — are located underneath the roof panel and tail the movement of the sun . The Plexiglas lenses bundle and aim the beam of the sun onto the collectors , heating up the H2O indoors to glean the energy . Source : Technokas
In plus to orchid , Daylight Greenhouses are also desirable for all other industrial plant that like the spook . “ That ’s especially common for a lot of houseplants , for exercise . As opposed to veg like tomato plant or cucumbers , which usually require as much sunlight as they can get , ” Van Tilborgh says . Daylight Greenhouses can be used anywhere in the world , “ but area where it gets comparatively insensate at night really showcase their reward . ” In hot regions , however , the zip they collect could also be used for absorption cooling . A new generation of greenhouses for many use — enabled by Plexiglas molding compounds .
For more information : Evonik Industrieswww.evonik.com
