In 2014, Gemüsebau Steiner built a new 11.8 ha tomato greenhouse in Kirchweidach, Upper Bavaria. A further 7.8 ha was added in 2016 and the company now grows tomatoes, peppers and strawberries. Production from the greenhouses is completely carbon neutral, using heat from local geothermal and biogas sources and photovoltaic cells on-site.
Since 2016, Steiner has used HPS supplementary lighting to boost year-round production and will now look to optimise energy usage for lighting through an installation of 100% LED top lighting in 5,000m². The Hyperion LED lights have been installed in Autumn 2019 using the existing 1000W HPS cabling and connectors, so it was a simple matter of hanging up and plugging in the fixtures.
Gemüsebau Steiner Hyperion LED installation
Commenting on his decision to choose Hyperion, Joseph Steiner said: “As part of our carbon free strategy, I have been interested in the benefits of LED lighting for some time now. When I visited Tomato Masters' new 5 ha greenhouse in Belgium with 100% Hyperion LED top lights, I decided it was time to learn how to grow with LED myself”.
Gemüsebau Steiner 19.6 ha site in Kirchweidach
“Using 100% LED lighting in tomato growing is relatively new but proven to be very successful. It enables Steiner to control the greenhouse climate more optimally. It is proven in other LED projects that more CO2 can be saved, due to the fact that the greenhouse windows are more closed. Together with the possibility to light more hours with LED, the crop yield will rise”, says Hyperion’s Head Agronomist, Maarten Klein.
Hyperion 1850 umol/s LED Top Light
After the first few months of use, Steiner’s Head Grower Andrei Mihai commented: “So far I have been very happy with the performance of the Hyperion LED lights. The plants are growing strongly under LED light compared with HPS. I will be monitoring the growth very closely and look forward to compare the yield and quality”.
For more information:
Hyperion Grow Lights
www.hyperiongrowlights.com