Cogenra Solar Completes Solar Cogeneration Installation for General Hydroponics

The 75 kW system installed at Santa Rosa, California facility of General Hydroponics will supplement the power production of its existing PV system and improve its energy savings by producing electric power and hot water from the same installation

Cogenra Solar's 75kW solar cogeneration array is delivering hot water and electricity to the General Hydroponics manufacturing facility in Santa Rosa, Calif.

The newly installed 75 kW system, 60 kW of thermal energy and 15 kW of electricity incorporates 36 Cogenra photovoltaic thermal (PVT) fixed over a normal solar racking system installed over the rooftop of General Hydroponics. The thermal part of the installation will cut down nearly 3,500 therms of natural gas usage at the facility and the electric power part will offset the solar power presently generated from its existing 101 kW system. Sun Light & Power, a partner company of Cogenra, has completed the solar installation in less than three weeks time.

The Cogenra system has received certification from both IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) and SRCC (Solar Rating and Certification Corporation) to receive both electric and thermal rebates including that of the incentives provided by the California Solar Initiative (CSI) for solar hot water systems. The present rebate of $12.82 per therm of preempted gas in the first year by CSI balances the CSI PV rebates thus allowing quicker paybacks than the normal solar electric or solar hot water facilities.

source

A harvest out of water

There's nothing like being able to pick fresh lettuce leaves or herbs straight from the garden - or, in the case of Anne Shaw, straight out of the water.

Together with husband Chris, Mrs Shaw has been growing hydroponic lettuces and herbs from their Mt Martha property for 20 years.

Anne and Chris Shaw with some of their hydroponic lettuce at their Mt Martha property

“We grow the fancy lettuces, such as oakleaf, coral, butter, mignonette and mini-cos, as well as basil, coriander, rocket and spinach,” she said.

“Hydroponics is surprisingly efficient in water usage. We use less than five per cent of the water needed to grow crops in the ground.”

Mrs Shaw said growing food hydroponically is great fun.

“You can do it using plastic buckets, storm water pipes - anything. All of our crops are on tables, so they are at waist-height. And there’s no weeding and no grit or soil in our plants.”

The Shaws also use integrated pest management.

“We use the good guys to kill the bad guys,” Mrs Shaw said.

“We buy in tiny wasps which eat the aphids, using natural mechanisms to kill the pests.”

Their label, Peninsula Aquagrowers, is sold through Mornington-based company Simply Fresh to restaurants, cafes and fruit growers around the peninsula.

Of course, hydroponic growing means there are crops every day of the year. “You’ve got to enjoy this because you’re working every day,” Mrs Shaw said.

“But there is something good about working with nature.”

source

Rooftop farms aim to make greens greener

An innovative New York company is designing, financing, building and operating hydroponic greenhouse farms on the roofs of supermarkets and schools, in a bid to produce locally grown food with low carbon and water footprints.

Brightfarms supplies its supermarket clients with fresh vegetables, such as lettuce and tomatoes, that have not had to endure a truck journey of up to six days from California, Mexico or Canada. Transporting produce is expensive, reduces the flavour and nutritional goodness, and is both fuel and CO2-intensive.

Brightfarms also has acted as an adviser to such projects as Gotham Greens, which was started by green entrepreneur Viraj Puri and investment banker Eric Haley. Gotham Greens recently built a 140 sq m greenhouse on a Brooklyn rooftop with the aim of growing 30 tonnes of organic fruit, vegetables and herbs each year for sale through local shops, farmers’ markets and to restaurants.

It uses a combination of energy management technology, solar panels and hydroponics technology to yield up to 30 times more produce than conventional field production, using 20 times less water during the growing process. Hydroponics involves growing plants in mineral-rich solutions without soil.

The company has signed up eight supermarket chains in the US, including three of the country’s largest, and has four farms under construction.

A one-acre farm costs about $2 million (€1.4 million) to build and would generate $1 million to $1.5 million in annual revenue, providing attractive profit margins given the reduction in shipping costs for the supermarkets, the company said.

“Our plan is to achieve $100 million in revenues by the end of 2015 and $1 billion by the end of 2020,” said chief executive Paul Lightfoot.

Among the investors in Brightfarms are the founders of US solar power giant SunEdison, Brian Robertson and Jigar Shah, and San Francisco-based tech investor and entrepreneur Ali Partovi.

Shah is also the chief executive of Carbon War Room, a green not-for-profit group set up by the Virgin founder Richard Branson.

“BrightFarms is an excellent example of aligning environmental goals with profit by eliminating waste, because photosynthesis is very efficient, whereas trucking a tomato 3,000 miles in a fuel-guzzling fridge is not,” said Partovi.

source

Rooftop Hydroponics on NYC Restaurant

I stepped onto the roof of the West Village restaurant Bell, Book and Candle and caught a glimpse of the future. I was surrounded by 60 white plastic towers seemingly sprouting from the floor. Seventy varieties of herbs, vegetables and fruits dripped from the towers, but there was no dirt up here.

Chef John Mooney -- my tour guide -- is able to grow nearly two-thirds the vegetables for his restaurant precisely because he doesn't rely on soil. Instead, Mooney and his partner Mick O'Sullivan have installed 60 vertical tower hydroponic systems creating a plastic, vertical, dirt-free garden.

As Mooney describes, hydroponics rely on "liquid soil." Instead of dirt providing the plants with their food, nutrients are delivered via water (i.e. the water is fertilized, not soil). Mooney claims that he can grow produce much faster by not relying on dirt. His lettuce, he believes, grows 25% times faster than conventional lettuce.

It's no coincidence that this glowing white rooftop sprouting pods looks like the future. Mooney says he already sees that future arriving.

I think in the next 10 years it will be so common. I mean I've seen so many things happen between last year and this year. Just yesterday we had a friend of mine who owns a big record label in Chicago, he put 10 towers on his personal home in Chicago. There's another sustainable seafood restaurant I do work for in Washington DC, we have 20 towers coming for them in two weeks... Even Hearst Tower they have some of this technology there.

Hydroponic growing requires a constant circulation of water, but Mooney and O'Sullivan have limited themselves to clean power. A solar panel powers the nutrient-dosing system and the water is then fed to the plants using gravity. Once the vegetables are harvested, Mooney lowers his harvest by pulley down the six flights from rooftop to his restaurant below.

In this video, Mooney shows us his rooftop garden in springtime and talks about why hydroponics and vertical farming are in our future.

source

Greenhouse gardener vies for cola grant

SHOW LOW — A local man’s greenhouse is vying for a $50,000 prize from Pepsi and he’s asking citizens to vote his way to the top.

Greg Hancock’s project uses hydroponics and recycled two-liter soda bottles to grow vegetables and other plants. Hancock’s greenhouse was submitted for voting in the Pepsi Refresh Project and, if he gets enough votes this month, will be eligible to win one of the 10, $50,000 prizes.

Hancock said his greenhouse has been running for four years, with a second one built last year. Both greenhouses are located behind the WME Show Low 5 Theatre and Majestic Music. Plants have sprouted in the first greenhouse and the bottles and the hydroponic system are in place in the second.

Under the system, Hancock said he has a reservoir of water and adds organic nutrients such as worm castings, bat guano and compost. This way, he said the system provides more nutrients than soil.

For 15 minutes every hour, Hancock said the system takes water out of the reservoir and fills the two-liter bottles to where it touches the roots of the plants. After some time, the water drains back out and heads back to the reservoir. Overall, he said the process takes half an hour to run.

“There’s no waste at all,” he said. “Everything’s recycled through the system.”

In his greenhouse, Hancock said, he grows 35 different varieties of heirloom tomatoes and 20 varieties of hot and sweet peppers. He said he also grows herbs such as stevia, an organic sweetener. He said he has even tried cross-pollinating two white tomatoes to create a White Mountain tomato, and, while it has not sprouted yet, he is hopeful he can create the locally grown variety.

In both greenhouses, Hancock said he has cameras that stream live video of the plants growing. He also produces podcasts instructing the audience on alternative methods for growing vegetables.

Hancock submitted his project to the Pepsi Refresh Project back in April and, out of 260,000 entries, was one of 1,500 selected for further review. He wanted to be posted for voting in May, but since his introductory video was too long, he did not make it. He shortened it to a minute, per Pepsi’s rules, and his project was posted for voting June 1.

The Pepsi Refresh Project, Hancock said, gives away over $1.1 million each month in grants in amounts of $5,000, $10,000, $25,000 or $50,000. The grants, he said, do not require a match, just a project Pepsi thinks will benefit the world.

“They’re open for everything,” he said. “It has to be an idea that can change the world a little bit.”
Once the projects are posted, they are open for voting by the public on the website at www.refresheverything.com. The projects that receive the most votes receive the grants, of which there are 60. Pepsi is also doing a promotion called power voting, which gives people five to 100 votes for codes found in Pepsi cans or 12-pack boxes.

Voting on this round of projects ends June 30.

If Hancock receives a grant, he said he will expand his system to include aquaponics and provide fresh fish as well as vegetables. With an aquaponic system, he said fish will live in the reservoir, eating the algae that the plants create. In turn, the emulsion the fish create is another nutrient that can be used to grow his vegetables.
Hancock said he would also use the grant to educate the public on the benefits of hydroponic and aquaponic systems. With food prices rising, he said maybe his lessons will lead people to produce more locally-grown food.

“We’re trying to teach a man to fish,” he said. “It’s the educational aspect we’re really pushing for.”

Hancock’s project can be found and voted for at www.refresheverything.com/remotegardener.

source