Green Sense Farms (GSF), a Chicago-area commercial grower, worked with Philips to use LED grow lights tailored for specific crops. GSF’s new facility at the AmeriPlex Industrial Park in Portage, Ind., will allow the company to harvest 20-25 times a year by using fine-tuned LED systems known as “light recipes” optimized for different kinds of produce, while using 85 percent less energy than traditional indoor grow lights.
GSF has invested millions of dollars to renovate and equip a million-cubic-foot indoor growing area consisting of 14, 25-foot-tall growing towers in two climate-controlled grow rooms, using Philips energy-efficient LEDs that are tailored to the specific crops.
GSF says much of the light from traditional, broad-spectrum lamps is of no use to plants. Philips has fine-tuned LEDs to create light recipes optimized to the needs of specific crops. Also, because LEDs run at cooler temperatures they can be placed closer to the plants and optimally positioned, ensuring complete uniform illumination of the plant.
Although most of its customers are restaurants, produce distributors, and grocers, GSF’s vision is to build farms at institutions, such as college campuses, hospital complexes and military bases that can serve large worker populations.