Lighting research consortium brings the CEA community industry-ready technologies. Without light, plants can’t grow. The continued advance of controlled environment agriculture means that sunlight is often supplemented and in some cases completely replaced by artificial lighting. It works well, but there’s one caveat: artificial lighting can take a lot of energy. Reason enough for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to kickstart the Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering (GLASE) consortium with $5 million in funding in 2017.
The goal of the consortium, an initiative between NYSERDA, Cornell University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with Rutgers University participating as a collaborator, is to reduce carbon emissions assocaiated with greenhouses and indoor farming.