From railway signals to cannabis cultivation

"The same need for high-efficiency lighting fixtures has developed in the cannabis space, just as it did in general lighting," he said. "For us, it was less about waiting for the market to develop and more about ensuring we were able to offer the right technology to solve growers' energy problem."

Market-wide, energy consumption is expected to grow significantly over the next two years. By 2022, New Frontier Data estimates total electricity demand from legal marijuana cultivation in the United States alone will increase 162 percent over 2017 levels. Already, D'Amico said, cultivators are seeing limits or rationing imposed on their energy usage. GE Current has positioned its products as tools to help solve that problem, with the goal of enabling profitable and sustainable operations at indoor grows. The company markets its LED lights to both large and small cultivators who want to minimize inputs. "Our LED grow lights and technology allow growers of all sizes to achieve that common goal," he said.

Bruno D'Amico
Photo Courtesy of mg Magazine

D'Amico, who holds a degree in mechanical engineering, spent eight years designing LED solutions for Current's transportation portfolio. The company has been designing LED fixtures since the technology's inception more than twenty years ago, beginning with railway signals. Rail signals are subject to harsh weather conditions and high levels of vibration and have zero room for failure; a dead signal can spell disaster. Backed by the engineering lessons D'Amico and his team drew from transportation, last year the company introduced the Arize Element L1000, designed especially for cannabis cultivators. The company worked with cultivators to design a light with efficacy levels up to 3.5 micromoles per joule that supports universal installation, enabling growers to grow more and consume less in any region, D'Amico said. The Arize Element L1000 provides a 232-percent increase in photosynthetic photon flux levels compared to the previous-generation fixture, he added.

The product is a one-to-one high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamp replacement for greenhouse and indoor applications. It's also versatile: Installation options include side-by-side, over-under, triangular, and power supply. The heat sink has no flat surfaces, preventing dirt and moisture accumulation, and the LEDs themselves are protected by a lens, allowing them to be hosed down. "We wanted to make sure growers have one less thing to worry about," said D'Amico.

But all good farmers know product features don't foretell performance in all applications. Crop yields are what matter. D'Amico said trials at leading universities have shown improvements in both yield and cannabinoid levels.

Even though trials indicated the lights are beneficial in indoor installations, cost became an issue; LED lighting systems are more expensive to purchase than traditional lighting methods, D'Amico revealed. Most established grows designed their facilities around HPS systems, a technology—and price point—with which cultivators already are comfortable. Current's challenge remains convincing old-school growers "increased yields, higher quality yields, quicker turns, and lower energy consumption" are possible when Current's LEDs are paired with industrial-internet-of-things-connected intelligent sensors and controls. D'Amico said cultivators actually may see a relative cost savings—especially when utility rebates for increased energy conservation are factored in.

GE Current partnered with Hort Americas as its sole distributor for LED horticulture lighting solutions in North America. The partnership marks the first time the two companies will distribute lighting solutions for use in the cannabis market. "Growers in all industries are already discovering the benefits that greenhouse and controlled environment production offer," Hort Americas General Manager Chris Higgins said. "Better control over environmental factors will have a positive impact on growers of all types, from young plant producers to ornamental growers to hemp and greenhouse vegetable producers."

GE Current worked with cultivators to design the Arize Element L1000.
Photo Courtesy of mg Magazine

D'Amico added, "Combining Current's technology with Hort Americas' ten-year-strong acumen in the commercial horticulture industry, we're connecting growers to relevant products and developing solutions with their unique interests in mind. We anticipate the need for energy efficiency in this space will increase as more and more growers enter the cannabis market as it is legalized around the globe.

"From an LED lighting standpoint, [cannabis cultivation is] still in an infancy stage as an industry," D'Amico said. "Our goal is to remain at the forefront of innovation to meet the ever-changing needs of growers and continue to be agile enough to respond to developments in other technologies and advances in research."

Source: mg Magazine

Photo to by Next Green Wave on Unsplash

Source: mg Magazine