You are now on the AHDB Horticulture and Potatoes website.
Please click here to access the main AHDB website and other sectors.
Please click here to access the main AHDB website and other sectors.
Energy
21 January 2021
How can improvements and innovations in technology help farmers and growers achieve net zero?
19 January 2023
Find out more about improvements in lighting in horticulture.
20 July 2021
Find out what heat pumps are and how they work.
23 June 2022
This is the second part of a two-part update on CO2. The first part covered the costs and characteristics of conventional CO2 supply. Here, we look at the supply of CO2 from biomass and anaerobic digestion and discuss how it has developed since the uptake of renewable-based heating systems.
23 June 2022
For 20 years or more, glasshouses originally built to produce other crops have been converted for soft fruit production. Read this Technical Update to find out more about how you can adapt existing glasshouses to suit soft fruit production.
23 June 2022
Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting has been developed for horticulture since the late 1980s, yet it remains on the periphery of mainstream sources for glasshouse lighting. Conventional assimilation (supplementary) lights, such as high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps, still tend to be the go-to option for many growers for various reasons. In this technical update, we consider the developments in LED technology in recent years and whether or not LEDs are an economically viable alternative to conventional light sources.
2 December 2020
Screens have become an essential tool for energy saving, shading and climate control in modern protected horticulture. New screen materials which save more heat energy and transmit more light have been developed, enabling screens to be deployed more in the daytime, or in double layers. There has never been a wider range of screen materials to give the optimum balance between energy saving, light transmission and shading. Read more in this technical update.
20 July 2021
Key aspects to consider in the design and maintenance of an efficient modern heat storage system.
27 November 2020
If someone offered you a product that could increase light transmission in your glasshouse by 10%, would you be interested? Research has shown a strong correlation between crop yield and the amount of Photosynthetic Active Radiation (PAR: 400-700nm wavelengths) light reaching the crop. Read more about how you can improve your light transmission.
21 December 2020
Biomass heating has become more popular over recent years, but one disadvantage has been that biomass boiler flue gasses can't be used for CO2 enrichment without cleaning them. Read this technical update to read about developments in biomass flue gas cleaning systems.
23 June 2022
This is part one of a two part update, in which we revisit the conventional sources of CO2 supply and discuss the influence of factors, such as heat requirement and electricity price on the cost attributed to CO2 supply. Conventional sources includes: flue gas from the ‘back of the gas boiler’, LPG or kerosene direct-fired heaters, CHP units or pure CO2 delivered to site.
20 July 2021
Thermal storage is the means of storing thermal energy (heat or cooling) so it can be used sometime after it is generated.