Dutch grower uses direct current to light crops

In a special project, a Dutch flower grower started a trial to use direct current electricity for his supplemental lighting. The grower, Jaap Vreeken of Vreeken Bouvardia, thinks that this is 30% cheaper. November 2 was the opening of his direct current demo nursery in Rijsenhout. His 2 hectare greenhouse will be fully adapted to direct current.

Trial
The opening of the 2 hectare demo location follows good test results. Utilizing direct current uses less power, through improved energy efficiency and less wiring. Because of this, the illumination costs decrease, and illumination can become economically feasible for productions where this is not currently the case. It turned out that saving costs on illumination is possible thanks to the longer lifespan of the armatures, and major savings can be made on copper for wiring. In addition, with direct current the illumination can also be better adapted to the crop's need, since every lamp can be switched off or dimmed individually.

"For the development on direct current, this is a unique project in the world, with many parties working together," the PrimAviera team says. These parties are: SGN PrimAviera, Haarlemmermeer municipality, Vreeken innovaties BV, Meermaker, Stichting Gelijkspanning, Direct Current BV, Gavita, Siemens, Liander and Stolze.

Direct current
Following the good results, the project was scaled up to a large-scale demo location in Rijsenhout. The Jaap Vreeken nursery is fully adapted to direct current. This means that in addition to illumination, the refrigeration, pumps and CHP are also connected to direct current. This means, for instance, that the CHP can run on partial load much more easily, which in turn means the need for energy and heat can be better tuned to demand. A solar panel park to hook up to is also in the works.

Source: Kas als Energiebron, PrimAviera