Philips Lighting announced it has been awarded a new project with longtime partner Wim Peters, a high wire tomato growers in The Netherlands. Philips Lighting will again provide Peters with LED lighting for two greenhouses that he’s rebuilding after they were destroyed during a hailstorm in June 2016. The company will also provide LEDs for one new greenhouse that Peters is building to expand his business and meet the growing demand for LED grown tomatoes by his customers. The LED lighting will have higher light levels than the twenty kilometers of LED grow lights that Philips Lighting installed in the two greenhouses in 2013.

(Image: Philips Lighting)

Higher light levels

Over the last 10 years, light levels in tomato cultivation (actually all vegetables) have continued to rise. In his previous installation, Peters had a light level of 55 µmol/m²/s LED interlighting. With the new project, he chose for 75 µmol/m²/s LED interlighting, a significant increase in light level. “A higher light level gives me more uniform production in winter and better quality and taste,” Peters said. “It also gives me a better balance between vegetative and generative phases, so leaf versus production.”

(Image: Philips Lighting)

“This is in line with the trend we are seeing from other tomato growers who want to go to higher light levels,” said Udo van Slooten, Managing Director of Philips Horticulture LED Solutions.  “To meet this demand, we launched the new Philips GreenPower LED interlighting module earlier this year with a system efficacy of up to 3.0 µmol/J. The modules are easier to install and maintain, bringing the total cost of project installation down significantly.” Several other Belgian, Russian and French tomato growers have recently moved to higher light levels as well.

Over 26,000 GreenPower LED interlighting modules

(Image: Philips Lighting)

In total, Philips Lighting will install over 26,000 GreenPower LED interlighting modules in the two rebuilt greenhouses and the greenhouse that is scheduled to be built in October 2017. The new hybrid lighting installation combines HPS toplighting with Philips GreenPower LED interlighting High Output, spanning a total area of 10.6 hectare. The entire lighting installation will be installed by Philips Lighting’s Horti LED partner Codema B-E de Lier, who has been working with Horti LED partner Agrolux to come up with the best hybrid lighting system for the customer.