Re:Arctic farming: Town defies icy conditions with hydroponics
by lightedman on Monday November 07, 2016 @11:05AM
(#12892089)
"Ventilation, heating and delivering light for photosynthesis require vast amounts of electrical energy, which, according to the article, comes mainly from diesel."
They must have forgotten about thermodynamics. Even with LED lighting, there's still a fair amount of generated heat to deal with. Also, with LED lighting, you reduce the amount of light actually required for growth as you focus on the more actively-utilized wavelengths of light.
As long as they use the diesel for controlling atmospherics, the rest of the place could easily be done on solar + sufficient battery bank. Arctic and Antarctic insolation is actually much higher than a good portion of the globe. [1]
They must have forgotten about thermodynamics. Even with LED lighting, there's still a fair amount of generated heat to deal with. Also, with LED lighting, you reduce the amount of light actually required for growth as you focus on the more actively-utilized wavelengths of light.
As long as they use the diesel for controlling atmospherics, the rest of the place could easily be done on solar + sufficient battery bank. Arctic and Antarctic insolation is actually much higher than a good portion of the globe. [1]
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_the_Arctic#Solar_ra...