Photovoltaic Greenhouses Get a New Look: Technology Creates a New Model for Ecological Agriculture Profits
Today, people can enjoy fresh and delicious off-season fruits and vegetables even in the cold of winter, and greenhouse facilities certainly deserve much of the credit. In many people's understanding, greenhouses should be a product of modern scientific progress. However, as early as more than 2,000 years ago, the ancients were already able to use a
Today, people can enjoy fresh and delicious off-season fruits and vegetables even in the cold of winter, and greenhouse facilities certainly deserve much of the credit. In many people's understanding, greenhouses should be a product of modern scientific progress. However, as early as more than 2,000 years ago, the ancients were already able to use certain protective facilities to cultivate a variety of vegetables. With the development of the times, agricultural greenhouses have long since transformed from primitive hotbeds into photovoltaic greenhouses, opening up a broader path for green agricultural growth and distinctive development. Today, let us take a greenhouse “journey through time” and experience the tremendous changes that technology has brought to agriculture.
Greenhouses Through the Millennia: East and West Take Turns on Stage
China is one of the earliest countries in the world to originate greenhouse cultivation, and its history of using protective facilities to grow vegetables is quite long; the Book of Han contains relevant records. This shows that ancient China already had some simple facilities for cultivating off-season crops for people to enjoy. In 3rd-century Europe, the ancient Roman emperor Tiberius, who loved snake gourd all year round, planted snake gourd in a room in wooden boxes filled with soil after its normal growing season had ended, and fitted the room with mica sheets, which allowed sunlight to enter the room while also maintaining the indoor temperature. From today's perspective, the principle behind growing snake gourd at that time was basically the same as that of modern greenhouses.
Early greenhouses often faced the problem of heat preservation, and the history of greenhouse scientific and technological progress is also a history of research and exploration into greenhouse heating equipment. The ancient Romans built pipes under greenhouse floors to convey hot air, and the French once burned manure to heat greenhouses. Similarly, during the Ming and Qing dynasties in China, there were fire-warmed greenhouses with earthen walls and paper windows.
In contrast, Europe began using the heat of solar radiation to raise greenhouse temperatures starting with the large-scale application of glass in Britain in 1851. The energy efficiency, environmental friendliness, and ease of ventilation and moisture removal of glass greenhouses were the reasons they became popular. With advances in production technology, greenhouse construction entered a true golden age and left many models for later generations. China's modern greenhouses, however, did not begin until the 1950s, and large ridge-style glass greenhouses were once built in North China. The development history of Chinese and Western greenhouses is a history of taking turns on stage, and over a thousand years of development it has gradually formed today's modern distinctive agricultural system represented by specialization, intensification, and large-scale operation.
A Clever Technological "Face Change": Photovoltaic Greenhouses Open a New Chapter
In the process of modern agricultural development, the proportion of scientific and technological investment in total agricultural investment is growing larger and larger, and the results in agricultural industry development brought by scientific and technological progress are becoming more and more remarkable. Traditional greenhouses have continuously applied changes brought by various technological innovations during their development, thereby pushing agricultural industry development to one historical peak after another, and photovoltaic greenhouses are another successful "face change" in greenhouse development.
Photovoltaic agricultural greenhouses are greenhouses that integrate solar photovoltaic power generation, intelligent temperature control systems, and modern high-tech planting. The greenhouses are covered with solar photovoltaic modules, which while ensuring solar photovoltaic power generation can also meet the lighting needs of the crops throughout the greenhouse. They can save cultivated land, ease the contradiction between people and land, and produce clean energy, while also supporting the greenhouse irrigation system, supplementing light for plants, solving the winter heating needs of greenhouses, providing greenhouse temperature, and promoting rapid crop growth.
In the practice of combining photovoltaics with agriculture, photovoltaic agricultural greenhouses use solar thin films as a new covering material and adopt multiple modes of construction tailored to local conditions, maximizing the various functions of the greenhouse. Among these, Hanergy, the world's leading thin-film solar manufacturer, has through continuous innovation of its own technology already taken the lead in the construction of photovoltaic agricultural greenhouses. Laminated safety glass no thicker than 5mm ensures that light transmittance does not decline for 20 years, and can also ensure good power generation efficiency under high temperature and high humidity. At the same time, in terms of classifying light, Hanergy truly achieves "taking what I can use." Its uniform red light and infrared light transmission capacity ensures the growth needs of most cash crops and avoids wavy growth in crops. The compound eyes of most insects can distinguish colors and are relatively sensitive to the transmission of short-wavelength blue, green, and yellow light, while they cannot see beyond red light. Therefore, using thin-film solar glass that does not transmit the violet-to-yellow light band can achieve an insect-prevention effect through ecological means and reduce the worry of pest damage. At the same time, it effectively isolates ultraviolet rays and reduces the occurrence of plant diseases. The thin film's pursuit of benefits and avoidance of harm makes the greenhouse more practical and adds a new safeguard for agricultural development. Technology has helped greenhouses achieve a "face change" and has also created the profit model of new ecological agriculture.
Greenhouses Through the Millennia: East and West Take Turns on Stage
China is one of the earliest countries in the world to originate greenhouse cultivation, and its history of using protective facilities to grow vegetables is quite long; the Book of Han contains relevant records. This shows that ancient China already had some simple facilities for cultivating off-season crops for people to enjoy. In 3rd-century Europe, the ancient Roman emperor Tiberius, who loved snake gourd all year round, planted snake gourd in a room in wooden boxes filled with soil after its normal growing season had ended, and fitted the room with mica sheets, which allowed sunlight to enter the room while also maintaining the indoor temperature. From today's perspective, the principle behind growing snake gourd at that time was basically the same as that of modern greenhouses.
Early greenhouses often faced the problem of heat preservation, and the history of greenhouse scientific and technological progress is also a history of research and exploration into greenhouse heating equipment. The ancient Romans built pipes under greenhouse floors to convey hot air, and the French once burned manure to heat greenhouses. Similarly, during the Ming and Qing dynasties in China, there were fire-warmed greenhouses with earthen walls and paper windows.
In contrast, Europe began using the heat of solar radiation to raise greenhouse temperatures starting with the large-scale application of glass in Britain in 1851. The energy efficiency, environmental friendliness, and ease of ventilation and moisture removal of glass greenhouses were the reasons they became popular. With advances in production technology, greenhouse construction entered a true golden age and left many models for later generations. China's modern greenhouses, however, did not begin until the 1950s, and large ridge-style glass greenhouses were once built in North China. The development history of Chinese and Western greenhouses is a history of taking turns on stage, and over a thousand years of development it has gradually formed today's modern distinctive agricultural system represented by specialization, intensification, and large-scale operation.
A Clever Technological "Face Change": Photovoltaic Greenhouses Open a New Chapter
In the process of modern agricultural development, the proportion of scientific and technological investment in total agricultural investment is growing larger and larger, and the results in agricultural industry development brought by scientific and technological progress are becoming more and more remarkable. Traditional greenhouses have continuously applied changes brought by various technological innovations during their development, thereby pushing agricultural industry development to one historical peak after another, and photovoltaic greenhouses are another successful "face change" in greenhouse development.
Photovoltaic agricultural greenhouses are greenhouses that integrate solar photovoltaic power generation, intelligent temperature control systems, and modern high-tech planting. The greenhouses are covered with solar photovoltaic modules, which while ensuring solar photovoltaic power generation can also meet the lighting needs of the crops throughout the greenhouse. They can save cultivated land, ease the contradiction between people and land, and produce clean energy, while also supporting the greenhouse irrigation system, supplementing light for plants, solving the winter heating needs of greenhouses, providing greenhouse temperature, and promoting rapid crop growth.
In the practice of combining photovoltaics with agriculture, photovoltaic agricultural greenhouses use solar thin films as a new covering material and adopt multiple modes of construction tailored to local conditions, maximizing the various functions of the greenhouse. Among these, Hanergy, the world's leading thin-film solar manufacturer, has through continuous innovation of its own technology already taken the lead in the construction of photovoltaic agricultural greenhouses. Laminated safety glass no thicker than 5mm ensures that light transmittance does not decline for 20 years, and can also ensure good power generation efficiency under high temperature and high humidity. At the same time, in terms of classifying light, Hanergy truly achieves "taking what I can use." Its uniform red light and infrared light transmission capacity ensures the growth needs of most cash crops and avoids wavy growth in crops. The compound eyes of most insects can distinguish colors and are relatively sensitive to the transmission of short-wavelength blue, green, and yellow light, while they cannot see beyond red light. Therefore, using thin-film solar glass that does not transmit the violet-to-yellow light band can achieve an insect-prevention effect through ecological means and reduce the worry of pest damage. At the same time, it effectively isolates ultraviolet rays and reduces the occurrence of plant diseases. The thin film's pursuit of benefits and avoidance of harm makes the greenhouse more practical and adds a new safeguard for agricultural development. Technology has helped greenhouses achieve a "face change" and has also created the profit model of new ecological agriculture.