OSRAM LEDs used to create controlled horticulture environment

Opto-Electronics

22 March 2017 Opto-Electronics News

Based in Colorado, USA’s metro Denver area, Infinite Harvest, an indoor hydroponic vertical farm, provides fresh and nutritious produce year-round, consistent in flavour and superior quality, for celebrity chefs, upscale eateries and prominent restaurant groups.

Through their unique growing system equipped with LEDs from OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, the company’s produce is grown with little environmental impact.

Utilising a fully integrated and controlled environment pioneered by owner Tommy Romano, harvest of fresh produce is completed daily in its 500 square metre facility, which is then sold to restaurants with a desire for local, fresh, high-quality produce. To support such consistent growth of its plants and to minimise crop loss, Infinite Harvest developed its own unique horticulture lighting fixtures, using OSRAM’s Oslon SSL 660 nm and SSL 450 nm LEDs which prove an integral part of the environmental control system. “Being able to design our fixtures around these two OSRAM products allows us to efficiently grow the plants by targeting the colour mix and intensity of the two wavelengths to the growth stage of the plants from germination to harvest,” explains Romano.

As opposed to open farming, vertical farming is an emerging industry that operates year-round in urban environments with no lulls in food production. In fact, floods, droughts, hail and pests are no longer an issue because everything about the plants’ environment – whether it’s temperature, light, food, humidity or water - is meticulously controlled. Perhaps most importantly, vertical farming requires a fraction of the arable land and water compared to traditional farming.

The use of LEDs in vertical farming is essential for optimised plant growth, and the specific wavelengths of OSRAM’s Oslon LEDs are best matched to what is needed in the photosynthesis process. Infinite Harvest designed the grow light fixtures with energy and heat efficiency in mind, reducing the need for latent heat management, thus reducing construction and operational costs of HVAC and power systems for the grow facility.

“The Oslon LED family of products used in Infinite Harvest’s controlled horticulture lighting environment offer many advantages, most notably the ability to produce large amounts of fresh local produce any time of the year,” said Drake Stalions, general lighting senior marketing and business development manager, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. “We’re pleased to continue expanding our LED product offering – this time to serve the evolving large scale food production industry.”

For more information contact Petrus Booyens, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, +27 (0)79 525 1779, petrus.booyens@osram.com, www.osram-os.com

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OSRAM LEDs used to create controlled horticulture environment

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