Pink colored glass in a greenhouse helps your plants to produce energy and save water
Simply by changing the color of the glass to pink (magenta), growers can generate energy and increase yields. A scientific breakthrough for sure. But what is its practical use in a greenhouse? And how exactly does it work?
Pink glass, energy generator
Published in HortiDaily , we learn a very interesting story about greenhouses that use pink (magenta) glass to produce energy. Glass producing energy can power systems in the greenhouse, such as supplemental lighting, air circulation (fans). Water conservation has an additional advantage. Due to the slightly reduced greenhouse air temperature, plants need less water.
But why rose?
Michael Loik, from the Loik Laboratory of the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz, explains why choosing the rose:
“The selected dye allows the red wavelengths of sunlight to pass through. Colors that are not absorbed by the dye are reflected or transmitted. In this case, the dye absorbs some of the blue. And the blue that is not absorbed, as well as the red wavelengths of sunlight + the blue = pink / magenta. "
But what about returns?
Commercial trials increased cucumber yields by 10% and lettuce / grass yields by 50% . Pink greenhouses can work in almost any environment, and with growing cannabis.
But there are tradeoffs with lower latitudes (increased cooling) and higher latitudes (less direct light). These greenhouses can be used almost anywhere.
LUMO Greenhouse Technology
In 2012, Michael's colleague, Dr. Glenn Alers, launched Soliculture to market the technology under the name LUMO Greenhouse. LUMO Soliculture technology combines pink glass with solar energy production. Glenn explains that the dye uses a quantum conversion process to convert green light into red light.
This amplifies the light with the greatest efficiency of photosynthesis. The transmission of the panels in the red (the most important for the growth of plants) is 120% . Reducing green light reduces stress on the crop. This results in lower leaf temperature, increased disease resistance, and improved crop yield.
