Low power, low temperature LED panels

It’s common knowledge that plants need sunlight to grow, but that’s not the whole truth. In fact, plants only need a small part of sunlight. This is what we call the visible spectrum and it's made up of seven colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

We recreate the spectrum with a proprietary LED design, which our team has researched and developed in-house over the past 10+ years, led by Chief Technology Advisor and pioneer of optoelectronic semiconductors, Professor Wang-Nang Wang.

The intensity of each color can be controlled, mimicking the natural changes in sunlight, and giving plants what they need at different stages of growth. Most leafy vegetables are harvested in cycles of between 28 and 35 days, during which time they require varying levels of intensity.

LED settings can be adjusted for different plant species, according to whichever conditions they thrive in, but we opt for a more generalized spectrum in commercial vertical farms. This balances the needs of each individual plant species, against the demand for a wide variety of plant species growing under the same light.

Balanced LED operation can significantly reduce electricity costs without impacting plant growth...

Not only does our proprietary LED design improve plant health, appearance, taste and texture, but it also optimizes efficiency throughout the vertical farm. Optimum efficiency can be achieved by finding a balance between lighting intensity and other operational factors.

When the lighting intensity increases, so does growth rate, but power consumption and heat emissions increase at the same time, impacting financial costs and plant health. We optimize the intensity in order to attain an ideal balance between these interrelated factors.

Our success in achieving this balance comes from more than a decade of experience, operating vertical farms in Taiwan and elsewhere around the world. In addition, by operating our R&D center alongside YesHealth iFarm, we have been able to commercialize our LED innovations at a rapid pace.

As opposed to the common vertical farming practice of utilizing readymade LED products, we innovate from the LED itself, designing and manufacturing our own LED hardware. This means we don't rely on a third party supplier for LEDs, which reduces our partners’ capital expenditure.

‍

Photos by Alastair Philip Wiper.