With its coastline buffeted by the chilly waters of the North Sea, it’s perhaps counterintuitive to think of the Netherlands as a place that cultivates large amounts of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Thanks in large part to its widespread adoption of greenhouse technology, however, it does. The sight of these structures, with their glass and aluminum glinting in the sun, is a common one across the country. “Greenhouses are just as Dutch as wooden shoes, as tulips,” Marc Middeldorp, manager for design and engineering at Van Der Hoeven, a firm that specializes in horticultural developments, told CNBC’s Sustainable Energy. “It’s a cliché, but it’s true,” he added.
Founded in 1953, Van Der Hoeven is involved in schemes that use greenhouse technology to produce fruits and vegetables. Referencing variables such as temperature, humidity and levels of pests and insects, Middeldorp explained that a greenhouse enabled users to “fully control the climate inside.” Nevertheless, creating a system where conditions are just right can be quite an energy intensive process. “There is a demand, definitely, for clients to build sustainable greenhouses with efficient use of energy and to reduce as much as possible the use of fresh water, electricity,” he added. “And that’s where our challenge lies at the moment.”
Headquartered in the Dutch city of Delft, the company’s Solar Powered Horticultural Off-grid Unit, or SPRHOUT, combines solar power with thermal energy storage. “It uses solar energy as an input to generate all the energy flows required to operate the greenhouse farm: heating, cooling and electricity,” Adriano Desideri, Solho’s CEO and co-founder, said. Desideri explained solar panels were used to heat water. “We store it in our thermal storage which we call the TESMOD,” he added. “And then from here, we harvest this thermal energy: either for heating, or for cooling through a thermal chiller, or for electricity through a power unit.”
Source: CNBC
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