NY State Efficient Yields: Energy & Water Efficiency in Controlled Cannabis Cultivation

Resource efficiency and profitability are not mutually exclusive. The right design, construction an equipment can produce a cannabis facility that respond to the market, optimizing yield when prices are high and generating normal yields at reduced operational costs when they are not. Likewise, grow rooms within the facility can achieve a spectrum between these two outcomes, aligning yield with expected price of a given set of strains. A better understanding of plant balances and physics has led to a new generation of greenhouse control using thermal curtains, diffusion shade curtains and feed forward lighting. Understanding vapor pressure deficit can greatly reduce energy costs once the grower understands the interaction between light, temperature and enriched CO2. Despite the additional capital expenditures of water recirculation, growers report an ROI of just 2-3 years due to fertilizer savings, while fulfilling the promise of >90% water consumption than field production.

Topical areas include:

• Renewable energy sources and interval metering

• Saving energy with shade and thermal curtains

• VPD-based control

• Yield response to light

• Strategies for reducing peak loads

• Flower quality response to light spectrum

• CO2 enrichment for replacing high light and heating

• PowerScore benchmarking and best practices