Why is dynamic lighting a game changer for greenhouses?

ECE POLAT: Who are you? What's your role at Sollum Technologies?

FRANÇOIS R. MOISAN: I'm François R. Moisan, one of the founders and CTO of Sollum Technologies. I founded the company six years ago with two of my friends at the university. Before that, we were in the art industry but it's another story. Since the creation of the company, I'm at the heart of innovation and technology at Sollum.

EP: What's the aim of Sollum's latest white paper about dynamic lighting? What are the benefits of it for growers? 

FM: I'll explain it in two parts.

First, we've seen that a majority of modern greenhouses have no or outdated horticultural lighting systems. This old lighting system consumes a lot of electricity, has a short lifespan and produces a fixed spectrum that isn't optimal for plants. What billions of years of evolution have shown is that plants have grown and optimized their metabolism to the light spectrum of the Sun. It varies according to the time of the day depending on where you live on Earth and depending on the season. There is a lot of evidence that reproducing the Sun's cycle and light are beneficial for the plant. That's where 'dynamic lighting' comes into play.

Dynamic lighting can recreate the lighting condition from any region in the world. It enables a real-time addition or removal of colours such as far-red, blue, green, etc. - aiming to follow and optimize plant growth at all stages. Basically, the light fixture can follow the plant growth and exactly provide what it needs at a given time. For example, a crop's need (spectral wise) is different at every growth stage, from the flowering and throughout when the fruit is actually growing. Another example is that dynamic lighting can compensate in real time the weather to make sure that the plant always sees a sunny day.

Second, we're still doing research on light benefits and new findings are published every day. Dynamic lighting allows us to implement it in real time, ensuring an optimal growth. For example, a Sollum client grows Buddha's hand, which is an exotic citrus plant from Japan, and is able to grow it in the Montréal area, in Québec, and in the winter time. So, we recreated the Japanese Sun and we grow beautiful Buddha's hands in Montréal, Québec, Canada.  

EP: What makes Sollum's white paper special?

FM: Dynamic lighting is the new age of lighting now. We're seeing HPS phasing out, LEDs finally phasing in but it is used in a traditional manner. Our white paper allows producers to better understand that they can grow whatever they want and whenever they want while reducing the electric consumption of their lighting system. We need to explain that dynamic LED grow lights are more than just a replacement of the current fixture they have. It's an open perspective of how growers can grow more efficiently while having a better product and reducing their energy costs.

EP: Do you have a message for the horticultural market? 

FM: Dynamic lighting is a future-proof solution. Since it can evolve and follow the current and future needs of growers, having that kind of solution enables them to continue having the best production possible and allows them to consider a variety of new products that they didn't think that they could ever grow.

EP: Would you like to add anything?

FM: Since we started Sollum Technologies, I've been following agricultural trends, demographic growth, climate change and everything related. We need to start thinking more about the future. As I said earlier, dynamic LED technology is not just a replacement of HPS. It's a method to achieve a more ethical, sustainable and local greenhouse production. That's the way we need to operate now. We've seen it with the pandemic. It's our responsibility to protect our nature and ensure access to fresh produce to everyone.

Click here to watch the short video of how Sollum dynamic lighting works.

About Sollum Technologies 

Inspired by nature, Sollum Technologies was founded in 2015 to offer greenhouse growers the only smart LED lighting solution which dynamically recreates, perfects, and modulates the full spectrum of the Sun's natural light. The company is based in Montréal (Québec, Canada), where its design, development, and manufacturing activities are concentrated. Sollum™ works closely with its clients and research centres to create recipes that are adapted to the growth cycle of each crop, regardless of its native climate or the location of the greenhouse. Its SUN as a ServiceŽ cloud platform enables multi-zone light management so growers can implement several different recipes simultaneously in the same greenhouse. The platform also automatically adapts the lighting of each zone to the ambient light to match recipe targets. Sollum's award-winning lighting solution thereby provides unparalleled value in terms of energy savings, productivity, and superior produce quality through a flexible, adaptive, and easy-to-use application, with great respect for the environment. For more information, visit sollum.tech.

Source: HortiBiz