Lighting

SIGNIFY’S EXPANDED GROWWISE CONTROL SYSTEM HELPS GROWERS BOOST OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES

Signify (Euronext: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting, has expanded its GrowWise Control System, allowing for higher levels of automation and reducing manual labor and operational costs. This can be achieved by automating the lighting planning for their crop’s full growth cycle, up to one year ahead. The software tool brings dynamic lighting to greenhouses and vertical farms and fits seamlessly with modern climate computers and greenhouse management systems. This enables growers to automatically adjust light levels to maintain consistent levels on cloudy days, save energy on sunny days and simulate sunrise and sunset throughout the day or season.

Growers, like the Italian vertical farm, Planet Farms, and the Belgium greenhouse, De Glastuin, are already using the expanded system providing additional value within their growing facility. “Using the GrowWise Control System is ideal for us,” says Luca Travaglini, co-founder of Planet Farms. “We want to automate as many aspects of our operations as possible to become more cost efficient. Now we can easily create custom light recipes and set them to run year-round to provide the right light recipe with the right light intensity at the right time throughout the crop’s growth cycle. By automating our full light strategy during the growth cycle, for the whole year, we can run our operations very efficiently and keep our manual labor costs low. That makes it easier for us to maintain consistent quality as we scale up our production.”

The demand for the GrowWise Control System is increasing for greenhouse applications as well. “The lighting can be used much more efficient, since it gives us the flexibility to reduce light levels at any moment we need to,” says Wouter de Bruyn, owner at De Glastuin. Lettuce grower De Glastuin is using the GrowWise Control System to control the Philips GreenPower LED toplighting compact grow lights via its climate control system. “The climate computer is equipped with a daylight sensor that sends actual light measurements to the GrowWise Control System so we can adapt our light levels automatically to ensure an even light level throughout the day and season. This results in a continuous high-quality crop. In case the electricity is the limiting factor, we are still able to use the LEDs evenly for the whole greenhouse in a lesser intensity.”

For more information, visit www.philips.com/horti