Energy use is an important issue in greenhouse horticulture. Recently, Klaas Knot, President of De Nederlandsche Bank, proposed phasing out greenhouse flower production entirely due to the use of scarce energy resources. But what consequences would this have, and for whom? Last week, students from the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Thesis Lab presented their findings on 'Energy in Horticulture'.
Working together across different fields of study, they tackled questions such as: How can greenhouse horticulture reduce its energy consumption? What are the alternative energy solutions of the future? And what paths will lead to such a future? The graduates worked on their own individual theses while simultaneously following an intensive, interdisciplinary programme. They learned a great deal about the practical aspects of the subject through site visits, discussions, workshops and roundtable conversations, in order to understand as many different aspects of this topic as possible.
Cultivating for a sustainable future
There was a lot of focus on the decision-making processes of growers for a more sustainable future. Methods such as individual versus collective decision-making and intuitive versus data-driven decision-making were also discussed. Different types of growers were also identified based on their decision-making style.
Two of the students conducted life cycle analyses (LCAs) of tomato crops and organic versus traditional fertilisers. Each presentation was followed by discussions, reflecting the many dilemmas associated with sustainability.
Combined heat and power installations
Yashar Ghiassi, academic coordinator of this graduation lab, presented an alternative to the current role of the horticultural sector in stabilising the national electricity grid through CHP (combined heat and power installations), in the form of active demand management. According to him, sharing costs, risks, knowledge and data is essential in the transition to a new, more sustainable energy system for the sector.
The interaction between the different fields of study of students at Leiden University, TU Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam, and the balancing of the interests of the sector and society in a broad sense, provides many insights. The thesis labs on sustainability originate from the LDE Centre for Sustainability. There are now thesis labs on various topics in which students from the three universities work together on cases from clients.
View the LDE Centre for Sustainability Thesis Laboratories
The universities would like to thank the partners for helping to make this graduation lab possible: Glastuinbouw Nederland, World Horti Center, Hogeschool Inholland, Tomatoworld, Vivent Biosignals and Eric Poot VB.
