Discussion on cost control of plant factory

Plant factories need to produce crops in a closed environment, so it is necessary to build related supporting equipment including external maintenance structures, air-conditioning systems, artificial light sources, multi-layer cultivation racks, nutrient solution circulation and control systems, and computer adjustment and control systems.

Industry-related research and analysis found that the cost of building a plant factory with an area of less than 1,000 square meters (including interior decoration, equipment, and facilities) is between 2,100 and 2,900 US dollars per square meter; The cost is US$1,200-1,500; for a large plant factory with an area of more than 10,000 square meters, the construction cost will drop to US$1,200 per square meter. Among them, artificial lighting equipment accounts for the largest proportion of all equipment costs, especially in plant factories that fully use LED light sources, LED costs often account for about half of the total equipment cost.

Post-production and operation costs mainly include electricity costs, various materials (nutrient solution, seeds, CO2 gas fertilizer), labor costs, material transportation costs, personnel management costs, etc.
Now electricity costs account for about 25% of the production and operation costs of plant factories. "An industrial plant with a height of 10,000 square meters and a height of 4 to 5 meters is transformed into a plant factory with artificial light, and the annual power consumption is more than 13 million kWh." High energy consumption It has been regarded as one of the main bottlenecks affecting the development of plant factories.

To solve the problem of high energy consumption, there are the following directions

One is to improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency. Optimize the use of light sources by optimizing the design of light sources, spectra, and environments.

The second is to use off-peak electricity. Plant factories can make use of low valley electricity at night to supplement and adjust light sources for crop growth. This not only reduces the electricity cost of the plant factory, but also plays a role in peak-shaving and valley-filling of the entire electric energy application, improving energy utilization efficiency.

Third, some measures to save electricity are also necessary. Different crops require different light environments. The longer the photoperiod, the better the growth quality and the faster the growth speed. Plant factories can find the best balance between light and plant growth, and find the optimal power consumption. model.

Fourth, actively explore the use of clean energy. For example, the application of solar photovoltaic power generation systems, wind energy, hydropower or biomass energy and other environmentally friendly power generation methods has become a hot spot in the research of plant factories.

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