The horticulture lighting industry is experiencing rapid growth, as the future of scalable food production becomes an increasingly critical concern. Growers are seeking high quality sunlight substitutions as crucial components in modern, indoor, agricultural environments. To address these needs, LED manufacturers are in fierce competition to develop horticulture lighting solutions that can effectively improve plant cultivation. In accordance with this trend, Samsung has newly released plant-centric spectrum LEDs made specifically for indoor farming. Until recently, horticult...

Since LED technology became mature enough for lighting applications, it has soon entered a plateau period and attracted players across the globe. The industry then turned into a battlefield with low price products and flat profit. Several leading lighting companies including GE, Osram, Cree and others, enlarged their focus into other special lighting applications. Horticulture lighting is one of their targets. (Image: Osram) Adding artificial light sources to help crops to grow has a long history in horticulture but the use of LEDs for such applications offers complete...

The DesignLights Consortium (DLC) released the final version of its Technical Requirements for LED-based Horticultural Lighting: Version 2.0, an update that will continue the industry transition from traditional lighting data and metrics to horticultural-specific lighting data and metrics that best represent horticultural lighting performance. The changes have an effective date of March 31, 2021. (Image: Signify) After analysis of stakeholder comments on Draft 1 of the policy released in May and in order to allow continued development of the nascent horticultural ...

The pandemic urged many countries to face the issue of food security as the lockdowns have posed threats to areas replying heavily on food import. Food production based on agri-tech demonstrates a feasible solution for the problem. For example, a new vertical farm in Abu Dhabi is going to launch in September to supply fresh veggies for the UAE. The vertical farm company, Smart Acres, has set the vertical farming facilities based on LED lighting and IoT technology in Abu Dhabi at the Armed Forces Officers Club. The company collaborated with a Korean company “...

A Finland-based vertical farming company iFarm announced that it has raised US$ 4 million funding led by Gagarin Capital, who previously invested in the project. Other investors include Matrix Capital, Impulse VC, IMI.VC and more. With the funding, iFarm said it will deepen its automated indoor farming technology and extend cultivation experiments. (Image: iFarm) iFarm offers vertical farming solutions for growing greens, berries and vegetables. It aims to develop its iFarm Growtune tech platform that enables operations of multiple varieties of vertical farms ...

Global warming, climate changes and increasing world population are posing threats to the planet we are living on and putting pressure on food security. Leading lighting supplier Signify recently shares its viewpoint of how horticulture lighting based on LED technology can be an enabler for sustainable alternative food production. Signify suggests that using artificial lights in horticulture is one way to increase demand without driving up the resource usage. Grow lights can either supplement natural daylight or replace it entirely. Using them creates a controlled farming envi...

According to the analysis of LEDinside, demands of the European and the US horticultural lighting market grew steadily in 2019. Compared with other lighting applications, the horticultural lighting market demand in 2020 is still increasing in a stably. To learn more about the market, LEDinside had a talk with Paul Scheidt, Leader of Product Marketing at Cree, one of the leading industry suppliers of the market to learn how innovative LED technology supports current horticultural lighting applications. (Paul Scheidt, Leader of Product Marketing at Cree; image: C...

Seoul Semiconductor announced that its SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs have been adopted for horticulture LED lighting by the Turkey-based lighting solution company Fiberli. While it is well known that natural sunlight is one of the key factors in growth cycle of a plant, most growers cultivating a variety of crops under sunlight have experienced difficulties in regulating their growth cycles due to adverse seasonal conditions. Replacing sunlight with LED lighting that closely matches natural sunlight enables growers to control the growth cycles and development of a...

How artificial lighting could provide full spectrum for plants has been an issue addressed by agri-tech experts. Apart from LEDs, a new study of ITMO University provide a new approach by creating light with ceramics. Scientists from ITMO in collaboration with their colleagues from Tomsk Polytechnic University came up with an idea to create light sources from ceramics with the addition of chrome that deliver not only red but also infrared (IR) light to enhance growth of plants. The results were published in Optical Materials. (Image: Anastasiia Babkina/ITMO...

Leading LED manufacturer Nichia has been dedicated in innovation of LED technology for a wide range of applications. LEDinside had an opportunity to interview Yoshihiko Naito, Deputy General Manager of Nichia’s Hong Kong subsidiary to learn more about the technology progress of Nichia in horticulture lighting and the current market trend. (Image: Nichia) LEDinside: From Nichia’s perspective, how is the global horticultural lighting market in 2019~2020? Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, whether the horticultural lighting market will see in a...

Signify has teamed up with Russian innovative farming company RIAT to pioneer the growing of tomatoes and cucumbers in a vertical farm without daylight. During the research phase in 2019, RIAT achieved a yield comparable to advanced traditional greenhouses using Philips GreenPower LED grow lights. To cultivate tomatoes and cucumbers that require intensive lighting vertically without the exposure of daylight, sufficient lighting system is critical. Signify supplied its LED grow lights to the Russian company to help it achieving a yield performance comparable to tradit...

Signify announced its expanded partnership with Planet Farms, a European operator of vertical farms based in Italy. With the latest agreement, Signify will provide its horticulture LEDs and management system to Europe’s largest vertical farm to boost the quality and yield of the crops. The updated collaboration will enables Planet Farms to produce and deliver aromatic herbs and lettuce to its customers in Italy all year round. (Image: Signify) Signify has also reached an agreement to provide horticultural LED grow lights to an additional five vertical farms t...

LG Electronics said it will unveil an indoor gardening appliance at CES 2020, its first foray into the booming indoor gardening movement. The refrigerator-look indoor gardening appliance adopts LED lighting, temperature and water control, all-in-one seed packages and a growth-monitoring app to help users cultivate nutrient-rich and flavorful greens inside their own homes. Utilizing flexible modules, the appliance replicates optimal outdoor conditions by precisely matching the temperature inside the insulated cabinet with the time of day. LED lights, forced air circulation, a...

As population in urban areas across the world continues to grow, it is estimated that by 2050, 68 percent of the world population will live in cities. This demographic shift will lead to increased demand for food within cities, adding strain to the agricultural and food systems, particularly in developing countries. Urban agriculture, or urban farming, has long been viewed as an innovative component in diversifying the food system. A 2018 study of urban agriculture’s global potential found that fully implemented urban farms around the world could produce as much as 180 million m...

LEDs support sustainable horticulture development with tunable lighting technologies and other smart applications. Worldwide food suppliers as well as lighting technologies suppliers continue to create innovative growing techniques for improving crops production and quality. Israel based grow light supplier Fotonica has developed and patented its bio-illuminationTM lighting system that optimizes the growth of cannabis, green leaves, vegetables, and ornamentals while providing real-time data and analytics that ensures maximum crop control and profitability. Fotonica’s TM L...

Based in the U.S., Black Dog LED was founded in early 2010. The company focuses on indoor gardening, has various serious of LED grow lights, and is continuing its research in latest plant grow lighting technology. LEDinside recently had the honor to interview Black Dog LED’s CEO Noah Miller, to get a deeper insight of the product development and market potential of horticultural LED lighting. LED light has obvious advantages in gardening compared to HID Talking about the advantages of LED grow light, Miller gave us an example of LED VS. H...

Signify announced its partnership with AppHarvest, a controlled-environment growing facilities builder to help the company increase efficiency and boost yields using fewer resources in their 25 hectare greenhouse in Kentucky, USA. With the partnership, the greenhouse will be fitted with a hybrid LED lighting system, utilizing Signify’s Philips GreenPower LED toplighting compact and Agrolux high pressure sodium lighting. AppHarvest will grow tomatoes and cucumbers in its facility, which will be completed in the second half of 2020. The facility uses a unique ...

Nanotechnology development company UbiQD announced an optical fiber-coupled luminescent concentrator technology as a new tool for optimizing light in controlled environments, enabling light-guiding to future UbiGro™ spectrum-control greenhouse products. "We continue to push the envelope with light optimization in greenhouses," said Dr. Hunter McDaniel, CEO of UbiQD. "One exciting potential use case is in vertical farming, where you could use our quantum dot-based luminescent fibers to harvest sunlight and optimally transmit that energy to multiple la...

Seoul Semiconductor announced the results of a series of experiments that demonstrated a higher growth rate and higher flavonol (a type of antioxidant) content in crops grown under SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs than those grown under standard white LEDs. The experiments were conducted on lettuce using SunLike Series LED lighting and standard white LED lighting of the same color temperature and light intensity. After two weeks of crop growth, the fresh weight and flavonol content of the lettuce were measured and compared. The fresh weight of lettuce grown unde...

Everlight, Taiwan’s leading LED packager, showcased a variety of LED applications at GILE 2019, including Mini LED display modules, fine-pitch display, automotive LED products, UV LEDs, IR LEDs, horticulture lighting and more. It even showcased for the very first time lighting products of WOFI, its German subsidiary, which stood out from the rest with designs rich with lines and curves, catching the eyes of many visitors. LEDinside had the chance to hold interviews with P.Y. Liu, Board of Director and Chief Consultant of Everlight, and E...

Horticultural applications of LED lighting are the current trend in the lighting industry. Leading companies around the world have been developing different products to meet the increasing demands. As worldwide need for healthy, fresh food continues to grow, greenhouse growers require efficient, effective lighting to enable year-round growing. Current, powered by GE announced the release of the Arize Element Top Light, the industry’s first one-for-one LED replacement for 1000W High Pressure Sodium (HPS) products. The Arize Element features multiple light...

Targeting the rising trend of indoor and vertical farming, horticulture lighting becomes a major focus for many lighting manufactures and Osram is one of them. The high tech company acquired Fluence Bioengineering, a US-based LED grow light supplier, in 2018. The company has launched LED horticultural lighting solutions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) with supports by Osram. According to Osram, Fluence’s staple full-spectrum LED lighting systems enable growers to achieve higher yields and higher quality than traditional horticultural lightin...

LIGHTFAIR International (LFI) 2019 officially kicked off in Philadelphia on May 21st, 2019. At the event, the FSP Group from Taiwan will showcase its high-power horticultural lighting and IoT-enabled smart lighting products. With the help of these products, FSP is poised to create a new niche sector for the maturing LED lighting industry. Foraying into the cash crop markets with high efficiency power supplies The applications of LED lighting in horticulture have become more and more popular in recent years, thanks to its adjustable illumination effe...

Signify presented its cutting-edge technologies in lighting and optical communication in “Signify innovation Day” in Taipei, Taiwan. The lighting company showcased its latest developments in connected lighting, Interact IoT platform, horticulture lighting and LiFi at the event, demonstrating the current trends in the global lighting industry. The world’s largest lighting company changed its name from Philips Lighting to Signify in May 2018, marking a transforming milestone for the Dutch company. John Wang, Senior Vice President of Signify and Pres...

Samsung announced the launch of its mid-power LED package, LM301H, featured with advanced photon efficacy for horticulture applications. Samsung claimed that the new released product, at 3.10 micromoles per joule (μmol/J), features the highest photon efficacy among today’s mid-power white LED packages. Photon efficacy (PE) indicates the light efficacy level for photosynthesis in plants and is measured in micromoles per joule. (Image: Samsung) Un Soo Kim, senior vice president of LED Business Team at Samsung Electronics, said, “This breakthr...

Horticulture LED lighting has opened a new horizon for farming. Indoor farming, vertical farming and many other alternative ways to grow crops free the weather limits for food production. Now, British scholars at University of Nottingham suggested that abandoned underground coal mines could be suitable environments for growing vegetables. With hydroponic systems and LED lighting, crops can be grown in subterranean environments some advantages. For example, groundwater could be directly used in the hydroponic systems. Besides, crop production is unaffected by climatic or sea...

The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) has released the second in a three-part series of standards which addresses LED radiation measurements for plant growth and development. (Image: ASABE) ASABE is a standards developing organization dedicated to advancing applicable engineering methods for agriculture, food and biological systems. The standard, ANSI/ASABE S642, titled “Recommended Methods for Measurement and Testing of LED Products for Plant Growth and Development,” describes the methods used f...

Osram has announced the financial results of fiscal 2018 and the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018 and addressed that it will focus on digitalization and high-growth markets.

DRAM supplier Apacer is going showcase its lighting inspection solutions targeting horticulture and agricultural lighting at Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Autumn Edition) from October 27th to 30th, 2018.

US-based LED lighting producer Luminus has released its new horticulture COB LEDs which are designed for enhancing the growth of cannabis with special spectrums.