ENERGLIK

ongoing

The greenhouse horticulture sector in the border region is among the absolute world top. However, the current energy crisis causes a major need to reduce energy consumption in greenhouse horticulture. In addition, the European Union has the ambitious goal of being climate neutral by 2050. In order to achieve this climate goal, research is needed so that new innovations can be implemented in practice. Moreover, the current energy crisis is a strong motivator for greenhouse horticulture companies to apply energy-saving measures and thus become profitable again. Climate-neutral, cost-effective greenhouse horticulture ENERGLIK wants to demonstrate how a climate-neutral greenhouse horticulture can also be economically profitable. To achieve this, the project focuses on four innovation projects: capture, purification and storage of CO2 in order to be able to reactivate it at the right time and dosed further development of insulating day and night screens optimisation of energy-efficient dehumidification needed to prevent mold formation development and optimisation of sensors to monitor the present mould pressure and support the grow control. The project builds on the results of 2 projects from the previous programme period. For example, GLITCH (2018-2021) focused on the development and testing of new energy screens that save up to 65 % of energy. A design was also made for a prototype of an energy-efficient vapour heat pump for dehumidification, but it could not yet be tested. Both the further development of the screens and the testing of the vapour heat pump are a necessity to achieve a real breakthrough. AgrEUfood (2019-2022) developed a bacteria sensor that was built into a smoothie machine to detect contaminants early. This new sensor technology will now be used for the detection of disease-causing fungal spores. If you can keep the mold pressure sufficiently low with a higher humidity, this can contribute to an energy-efficient climate control.

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