Philips Horticulture LED Solutions has announced that GreenClocks New Generation City farm – a new city farm of Osaka Prefecture University Japan using Philips GreenPower LED production modules – has been opened on September 19, 2014. GCN City farm has been set up in an effort to promote city farms and to encourage operations on an industrial scale to produce delicious and safe fresh vegetables for consumers. Furthermore, the farm will make a social contribution in the agricultural field by offering a verification model in which corporations, universities and the government are closely involved. GCN City farm is expected to function as a central site that promotes the development and use of ground-breaking technology in factory plants.
GCN City farm will produce 5,000 stocks of leafy vegetables, such as lettuce, every day. Companies associated with Osaka Prefectural University will soon be able to conduct business trials from production to sale. As the sales firm behind GCN City farm, GreenClocks will start selling the vegetables produced by the farm under the ‘Gakuensai’ brand from early October.
Philips has supplied GCN City farm with 13,000 LED GreenPower LED production modules for growing vegetables. The GreenPower LED production module is an LED module that produces far-red light and is the first of its kind to be installed in Japan*1 for multi-layer cultivation. Producing optimal light in the far-red wavelength, it is expected that the GreenPower LED production module will deliver twice the output of an HF fluorescent lamp for the same electricity consumption*2. In addition, this LED production module can save up to 55 percent energy compared with a conventional fluorescent lamp*3.
- The first one made by Philips (2013). Whether or not the module produces far-red LED light depends on product specs.
- According to research carried out by Kazuhiro Akima, Yuji Miyasaka, and Jun Konishi
- Supplied by CCS Co. Ltd.
Using the latest LED technology and advanced knowledge from the Netherlands – a global leader in the field of horticulture − Philips supplies LED lighting solutions for horticultural purposes to businesses all over the world. Based on extensive experience gained over many years and through close cooperation with vegetable growers around the world, Philips has conducted numerous experiments and research to investigate the link between lighting and plant growth cycles. By developing products based on these results, Philips has achieved top rankings in Europe and North America.
Overview of Osaka Prefecture University’s city farm that uses exclusively artificial lighting (GreenClocks New Generation City farm)
- Scale: On RC refilled ground 2F, surface area 1,300 m2
- Cost: 700 million yen
- Venue: Nakamozu campus, Osaka Prefectural University
- Facilities: ・Nursery plant diagnostic robot system with GreenClocks technology ・Fully LED lighting in cultivation process ・Verification/evaluation facility for mass production (5,000 stocks a day)