FortisBC Inc. (FortisBC) Application for a Certificate of Public ...

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
Current LED Technology
FortisBC Inc. (FortisBC or the Company)
Application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity
for the Advanced Metering Infrastructure Project
Response to British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC or the Commission)
Information Request (IR) No. 1
Submission Date:
October 5, 2012
Page 191
Non-industry studies on LED lighting in greenhouse applications, while often hopeful about the
future of LED lighting, do not generally advocate a switch from HPS lighting in practical
applications.
The October 2011 publication of Greenhouse Canada contains an article by Dr. Elly Nederhof, a
guest scientist at Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands. The report
equates the LED to HPS in terms of efficiency. She further points out that increases in
efficiency, a reduction in price as well as additional knowledge is required to better apply LED
technology for plant growing. The report is attached as Appendix BCUC IR1 83.4.1.
Another academic study abstract comparing the growth of tomatoes under hybrid LED and HPS
lighting (http://www.actahort.org/books/952/952_42.htm) concluded that “The use of LEDs can
be promising for greenhouse horticulture, but before it can be put into practice on a large scale
more knowledge must be acquired on effects of LED lighting on crops. Furthermore, the
growers will have to learn to grow their crops under LEDs and the efficiency of LEDs must
increase even more.”
From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_cultivation:
Recent advancements in LED technology have allowed for diodes that emit enough
energy for cannabis cultivation. These diodes can emit light in a specific nanometer
range, allowing for total control over the spectrum of the light. LEDs are able to produce
all of their light in the PAR range. One major short coming of LED’s remains their lack of
intensity. Due to this lack of intensity LED is only able to excel at growing plants in the
vegetative stage of growth, or when flowering with extremely small canopies (micro
grows).
LED grow lights are still considered an experimental technology in cannabis cultivation.
Due to their high cost and low light output they remain unused by the commercial
grower. The market remains flooded with cheap quality LED lights that do not produce
yields comparable to what growers are accustomed to. Many companies are using
single watt LED chips, which have notoriously produced low yields and wispy results.
When considering purchasing any grow light, one should carefully examine both the
spectrum and the intensity of the light, and try to find results from similar grows using
that light.
Future LED Use
Commercial marijuana growers who are faced with a choice between proven and unproven
technology that costs approximately 10 times more will consider several factors: