TY - JOUR
T1 - Agricultural plastics secure CEA ubiquitous applications in 21st century
AU - Giacomelli, G. A.
AU - Jensen, M. H.
AU - Kacira, M.
AU - Kubota, C.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the faculty and staff of UA-CEAC for their support when called upon and for the use of shared greenhouse facilities.
Funding Information:
Agrivoltaics combine the production of electricity using photovoltaics and agricultural production using the same land space, and therefore not competing with the existing agricultural land. This is especially useful in arid and semi-arid climates. Juang and Kacira (2014) evaluated the system dynamics of an off-the-grid greenhouse (OGGH) production system powered by opaque monocrystalline silicon cell solar photovoltaic power generation system installed on the side of the greenhouse compared to a grid-connected greenhouse (GCGH) system. The research was funded by the University of Arizona Green Fund, the USDA National Needs Graduate Fellowship (NNF) program, and in-kind donations by Snap Fan, Rough Brothers, Arizona Vegetable Co., AT Films, and Wadsworth Controls. The resource inputs (water, fertilizer, energy) required for crop production were monitored as well as resource outputs (energy produced, yield) from the integrated production system. The cherry tomato production yields from OGGH were comparable to that of the GCGH system, 0.96 and 0.95 kg m-2 week-1, respectively. The integrated OGGH produced 19.8 MJ m-2 while requiring 18.3 MJ m-2 energy compared to 48 MJ m-2 energy consumption of the GCGH.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 International Society for Horticultural Science. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) production of food crops has become more technical, computerized, and integrated into environmental, social and economic aspects of business and community developoment. It has spanned the extreme climates of the world from arid deserts to the frozen Antarctic to the food deserts of modern urban life, and even into low Earth orbit on the International Space Station. CEA has ensured safe, clean, sustaining nutrition for the people it serves. It has become a value-added complement for open field agriculture to meet the challenges of future world climates. Its success is directly attributed to use of plastics. The greenhouse is multi-purposed, and flexible in its applications. It is a biological processor, taking in natural resources and providing plants and plant products for a better quality of life. It is a natural solar energy converter, a provider of biological storage, which combines bioresources through biochemical processes for CO2 sequestration and oxidation by respiration. It establishes an ecosystem and controllable plant microclimate separated from the local natural environmental conditions. It creates new plant life and products such as edible biomass by enhancing the natural genetic potential of a plant. The greenhouse operations can also be a mechanism that brings the community together for social activities, while its year round operation can become an agricultural jobs creator. It is a complex tool recognized by the policy-makers for improving the economy, the employment, nutrition/health and the markets within the food chain. Research projects completed at UA-CEAC which were successful because of plastics, will be the focus of this presentation, including: greenhouse environment modfied by glazings (solar PV, spectral changing) and control systems; nutrient delivery systems; production system designs for improved quality of life applications (new plant-based businesses, urban agriculture, life support for Moon and Mars habitats).
AB - Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) production of food crops has become more technical, computerized, and integrated into environmental, social and economic aspects of business and community developoment. It has spanned the extreme climates of the world from arid deserts to the frozen Antarctic to the food deserts of modern urban life, and even into low Earth orbit on the International Space Station. CEA has ensured safe, clean, sustaining nutrition for the people it serves. It has become a value-added complement for open field agriculture to meet the challenges of future world climates. Its success is directly attributed to use of plastics. The greenhouse is multi-purposed, and flexible in its applications. It is a biological processor, taking in natural resources and providing plants and plant products for a better quality of life. It is a natural solar energy converter, a provider of biological storage, which combines bioresources through biochemical processes for CO2 sequestration and oxidation by respiration. It establishes an ecosystem and controllable plant microclimate separated from the local natural environmental conditions. It creates new plant life and products such as edible biomass by enhancing the natural genetic potential of a plant. The greenhouse operations can also be a mechanism that brings the community together for social activities, while its year round operation can become an agricultural jobs creator. It is a complex tool recognized by the policy-makers for improving the economy, the employment, nutrition/health and the markets within the food chain. Research projects completed at UA-CEAC which were successful because of plastics, will be the focus of this presentation, including: greenhouse environment modfied by glazings (solar PV, spectral changing) and control systems; nutrient delivery systems; production system designs for improved quality of life applications (new plant-based businesses, urban agriculture, life support for Moon and Mars habitats).
KW - CEA
KW - Food produciton systems
KW - Greenhouse
KW - Hydroponics
KW - Plastics
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85073711584&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.17660/ActaHortic.2019.1252.22
DO - 10.17660/ActaHortic.2019.1252.22
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85073711584
VL - 1252
SP - 163
EP - 172
JO - Acta Horticulturae
JF - Acta Horticulturae
SN - 0567-7572
ER -