Lumo Panels: More Electricity and Longer Plant Cycles

There’s a new breed of solar panel making news lately and for good reason. Lumo panels are making greenhouses more profitable and energy efficient. These Lumo panels bare little resemblance to your typical solar panels. Firstly, they’re pink (yes, pink), opaque, and they’re actually good for plants.

How Do They Work?

Unlike other solar panels, Lumo panels are transparent. They use a low density of silicon photovoltaic strips and arrange them periodically on the panel. Likewise, the way they arrange the strips allows for light to transit between the strips. On the back of the glass, they adhere a thin layer of luminescent material. This enhances the light quality, and, is what makes the panels pink.

Red Light

Although it looks cool, Lumo panels aren’t pink for aesthetic, these panels are designed with red dye for a reason. The dye absorbs green light and converts it into a red light. Red light is the best light for plants to grow properly and it is necessary for photosynthesis. Meanwhile, the solar panels convert the light absorbed into electricity, making these Lumo panels dual providers.

From Farm To Fork

Nick Halmos, CEO of Cityblooms, has been using Lumo panels for about two years now. “If population growth projections are correct, almost 70% will be living in urban environments and that’s where all the mouths that need to be fed are,” Nick explains. “If we can produce food closer to where people eat, we can reduce transportation costs and deliver fresher crops.”

Cityblooms started out as urban farmers and now they’re all about data. “This is what got us interested in Lumo panels because we are constantly striving to make our systems more resource efficient,” Nick tells me. Citybloom’s mission is to grow food closer to where people eat and that requires using nooks and crannies, like rooftops. “With Lumo panels, not only are you getting energy, but you’re also getting increased crop performance,” Nick elaborates.

Image: American Society of Landscape Architects

Nick found that “in the summertime, the sun provides more light than our plants need on a daily basis, the Lumo panels actually tune the light for optimal growth”. They generally put the panels on southern facing surfaces so that in the peak of the summer time heat they generate the most energy without impacting plant growth.

With the Cityblooms model, an institution can be a farm, and it’s successful. “Right now, we only have Lumo panels in one of our farms but are absolutely looking to expand,” he tells me.

The Research

Lumo panels were created in 2011 at the University of California by Glenn Alers, president of Soliculture. “We did about a year of research to find out the ideal blue to green to red ratio for plant growth and photosynthesis response,” Glenn tells me about how Lumo panels came to be. “When we finished the research phase of optimizing the spectrum, we partnered with about a dozen greenhouses locally to try them out and get advice.” They found that there were no negative responses, but were worried about how the panels would work in low light places.

To test this concern, Soliculture partnered with larger growers in Alberta and California. “The results in Alberta mirrored what we had in California,” Glenn explains. “We’ve grown lettuce in all extremes and places and we saw positive responses.” They found that there was a much shorter time for the lettuce to mature. Normally it takes six weeks for lettuce to mature and it took about five weeks with Lumo panels. “For cucumbers, we also found positive results,” Glenn tells me, “you get about two extra weeks out of the vines.

More Produce, More Power, More Profit

“Electricity was a major pain point for greenhouse growers,” Glenn tells me. “We went into it as a way to make greenhouses even more sustainable than they already are.” Additionally, they’re also working with smaller clients to build net zero greenhouses. Meaning they generate all the electricity needed to run the greenhouse through the Lumo panels. “Currently that’s only practical on the small scale, less than an acre and we’re hoping when batteries improve, we can do this on a larger scale,” Glenn explains. “The great thing about our product is we bring more power, more produce and more profit to the greenhouse grower.”

Resources:

https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/new-breed-of-solar-panels-fine-tunes-light-for-crops
https://www.treehugger.com/solar-technology/solar-smart-greenhouses-produce-both-clean-electricity-food-crops.html
http://www.soliculture.com/lumo-technology/
https://cityblooms.com/