Now THAT'S a power plant! Indoor farm grows 10,000 heads of lettuce a DAY using lights that mimic day and night
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Humans have spent the last 10,000 years mastering agriculture, but it just takes a dry spell, or a flash flood to wipe out a year's worth of crops.
Hoping to solve this problem is plant physiologist Shigeharu Shimamura, who has set up an industrial-scale farm inside a factory in Japan.
Closely controlled using specially-designed LED lamps, the farm opened earlier this month and is already said to be producing 10,000 heads of lettuce a day.
The farm (pictured) is nearly half the size of a football field (25,000 square feet) and is built in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It uses 17,500 LED lights spread over 18 cultivation racks, reaching 16 levels high. These lights have been specially developed to mimic day and night
The farm is nearly half the size of a football field (25,000 square feet) and is built in a former Sony Corporation semiconductor factory in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture in Japan.
THE BENEFITS OF INDOOR FARMING
The farm uses 17,500 LED lights spread over 18 cultivation racks, and these lights are used to mimic day and night.
By monitoring the photosynthesis process carefully, the system grows lettuce two-and-a-half times faster than an outdoor farm.
It also cuts waste product by 40 per cent and productivity per square foot is up 100-fold.
The special LED fixtures were developed by GE and emit light at wavelengths optimal for plant growth.
Purple lighting is used to mimic night, for example, while the white lights are adjusted slowly throughout the day to mimic a sun moving through the sky.
The environment is also monitored, including temperature, humidity and irrigation.
By doing so, the farm has cut its water usage to just 1 per cent of the amount needed by outdoor fields.
It farm uses 17,500 LED lights spread over 18 cultivation racks, reaching 16 levels high - and these lights are used to mimic day and night.
By monitoring the photosynthesis process carefully, the system grows lettuce two-and-a-half times faster than an outdoor farm.
It also cuts waste product by 40 per cent and productivity per square foot is up 100-fold.
'I knew how to grow good vegetables biologically and I wanted to integrate that knowledge with hardware to make things happen,' Shimamura said.
He was inspired while working in Miyagi Prefecture in eastern Japan, which was badly hit by powerful earthquake and tsunamis in 2011.
This wiped out crops and led to food shortages.
The special LED fixtures in his farm were developed by GE and emit light at wavelengths optimal for plant growth.
By monitoring the photosynthesis process carefully, the system grows lettuce two-and-a-half times faster than an outdoor farm. The Mirai farm opened earlier this month and is already producing 10,000 heads of lettuce (pictured) per day
Purple lighting (pictured) is used to mimic night, while white lights are adjusted slowly throughout the day to mimic a sun moving through the sky. By achieving combination of photosynthesis during the day, and breathing at night, the firm can control the environment too. This cuts water usage to just 1 per cent of outdoor fields
COULD NASA FARM IN SPACE?
At nearly £14,000 ($23,000) to send a kilogram of food into space, cosmic cuisine doesn't come cheap.
Nasa currently has plans for a 'space farm' and is already experimenting with growing lettuce on the ISS.
As well as cutting costs, Nasa is hoping a 'space farm' will deliver a lasting supply of food for astronauts on deep space missions.
It could also provide something called 'horticultural therapy' for astronauts to reduce stress, alleviate depression and improve their overall general health.
The work is part of the Vegetable Production System (Veggie) to grow six romaine lettuce plants under pink LED lamps.
Nasa claims that after extensive testing on plants on Earth, it doesn't expect zero-gravity conditions to affect the growth of the plants.
Purple lighting is used to mimic night, for example, while the white lights are adjusted slowly throughout the day to mimic a sun moving through the sky.
'What we need to do is not just setting up more days and nights,' Shimamura continued.
'We want to achieve the best combination of photosynthesis during the day and breathing at night by controlling the lighting and the environment.'
This includes controlling temperature, humidity and irrigation.
By doing so, the farm has also cut its water usage to just 1 per cent of the amount needed by outdoor fields.
Shimamura added that the systems allows him to grow lettuce full of vitamins and minerals.
Shimamura got the idea for his indoor farm as a teenager, when he visited a 'vegetable factory' at the Expo '85 world's fair in Tsukuba, Japan.
He went on to study plant physiology at the Tokyo University of Agriculture, and in 2004 started an indoor farming company called Mirai, which in Japanese means 'future.'
The concept took off in 2011, when GE approached Shimamura with an idea for using advanced LED lights to illuminate the farm.
The LEDs (pictured) last longer and consume 40 per cent less power than fluorescent lights. The company started testing the technology in March 2012 and came up with the final design a year later. Engineers designed the lights to be thin enough to fit inside the stacks
The LEDs last longer and consume 40 per cent less power than fluorescent lights. The companies started testing the technology in March 2012, and came up with the final design a year later.
GE engineers used proprietary technology to make the lights thin enough to fit inside the stacks, provide uniform light and endure the high humidity inside.
'That way, we can put in more growing racks and increase productivity dramatically,' said Tomoaki Kimura, country manager for GE Lighting Japan.
The GE Japan team believes that indoor farms like the one in the Miyagi Prefecture could be a key to solving food shortages in the world.
Mirai and GE are already working on 'plant factories' in Hong Kong and the Far East of Russia.
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