Climate change and sever weather is the primary challenge facing year-round berry production in Canada. Our solution to address this challenge is to couple an indoor farm and solar photovoltaic shielded outdoor farm, which is net zero energy to produce berries year round with high yields, nutrient, and sensory quality. The systems can be can be attached to the retail locations to provide zero-mile food supply. Our solution will provide maximum yields ,enhanced nutritional and sensory quality with minimum production expenses. Furthermore, the system will be modular scalable, and adaptable to various locations and extreme climate conditions. The core idea is to couple an agrotunnel with agrivoltaics. An agrotunnel is an earth and vegetation covered tunnel that will hold high-density vertical aeroponic hybrid systems using high-efficiency spectrally optimized LED grow lights. We already have experimental evidence this works physically, but the economics can be a challenge because of the electricity costs depending on the location. To improve the economics and decrease the electricity costs, the agrotunnel and surrounding area will be covered with adjustable partially-transparent solar photovoltaic arrays. These arrays are described as agrivoltaics due to the co-location of agriculture and photovoltaics. Furthermore, the arrays will be used as shields to protect the outdoor plants from extreme weather, create a microclimate to conserve water, and provide all of the electricity needed to run the lights, water pumps and heat pumps inside of the agrotunnel. This makes the system portable to most locations within Canada. The strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, ground cherries and salmon berries will be monitored with computer vision systems and also be tested in outdoor columns that are exposed to three levels of partially-transparent solar cells in agrivoltaic arrays to find the optimal conditions for outdoor use and compare them to the growth performance available internally.
This project is funded by the Weston Family Foundation as part of the Homegrown Challenge.
