The agricultural sector uses 70% of water withdrawals worldwide and uses nutrients that are leached from the soils into lakes and reservoirs. Vertical farming has great potential to remedy some of these issues. Vertical farming, where crops are grown vertically indoors, uses more than 600% energy per kg of crops produced compared to traditional greenhouses. By reducing the amount of light exposed to the lettuce plant rocket, a reduction of this energy consumption can be achieved. By exposing rocket to 7 hours of light per day an energy saving of approximately 10% per kg of crops is achieved (compared to the average vertical farm). This saving makes vertical farming a more desirable supplement for traditional agriculture, thus reducing water use.
This is how I came up with the idea for this project:I have plants at home exposed to artificial light. I always wondered how much light they actually needed in order to grow - is the optimal amount of light less than 24 hours? What if it was 12 hours? 7 hours? 4 hours?
Documentation
