The approach to use renewable energy for
agriculture is growing widespread. Fuji Electric developed a PCV greenhouse equipped
with solar cells in collaboration with Zen-Noh, and plans to sell this new
product through Zen-Noh’s distribution channels starting in 2012. The
newly-developed PCV greenhouse has a roof with film solar cells developed by
Fuji Electric on it. The solar cell is about 1 mm thick. Because it is thin and
light, it can be put on the frame of a PCV greenhouse. Zen-Noh will study the optimal
installation system of the solar cells to maintain high generation efficiency. A
PCV greenhouse of about 2,000-square-meters is expected to have a generation
capacity of 6-8 kW. Surplus electricity will be sold to electric power companies.
The substantiative experiment has started using PCV greenhouses for tomato
cultivation. The company plans to sell the solar cells with a farming support
system, and expects to grow the annual sales to 10 billion yen in three years.
Sinfonia Technologies developed a vegetable
plant system combined with a generation system that uses renewable energy to
promote the self-sufficiency of electricity in agriculture. The system comes
with a storage battery and equipment to generate electricity using sunlight and
wind. When sunlight is not enough for photosynthesis, the system lights LEDs to
supplement sunlight using electricity from the storage battery. The vegetable
plant system offers high harvest efficiency. It can produce 2.5 times more
tomatoes than the conventional cultivation method. The system is scheduled to
be installed in a 1,000-square-meter vegetation plant to be built by Zen-Noh.
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