Signify, formerly Philips Lighting, has expanded its collaboration with Planet Farms, Europe’s largest vertical farm, to boost the quality and yield of crops using light emitting diode (LED) production modules.
Italy-based Planet Farms will use Signify’s GrowWise Control System and GreenPower LEDs to produce herbs and lettuce. The expanded agreement will be for Signify to provide horticultural grow lights to an additional five vertical farms that Planet Farms is planning to build in different European countries in the coming years, including Switzerland and the U.K.
The lighting helps optimize multilayer crop cultivation that growers can use to create and run custom light recipes on dimmable and color-controllable modules to meet the needs of different crops and growth phases. Signify said this allows growers to control time-based light recipes and improve crop results and operational efficiency in closed, climate-controlled cultivation facilities.
In 2020, Planet Farms will finish construction of Europe’s largest vertical farm in Cavenago, Italy, which will cover more than 9,000 square meters (roughly the size of 45 tennis courts). The integrated growth process begins with the seeds and ends with packaged products with the process being entirely automated.
“The plans to build another five farms across Europe shows that vertical farming is rapidly growing and evolving,” said Udo van Slooten, business leader, horticulture lighting at Signify.
