Alliances Formed in Taiwan to Tap LED Greenhouse Lighting

Goal being to develop LED lighting to boost output of food growers

Clearly to diversify applications, Taiwan's light emitting diode (LED) makers are trying to develop products for aquaculture, horticulture and animal husbandry, a niche seen to bear promise in the long run although insignificant now.

Such effort culminated in the formation of a “horticultural factory or greenhouse” association on June 29, 2011 by 87 organizations and another on Jan. 3, 2012 by some 70 organizations aiming to apply LED lighting to aquaculture, horticulture and animal husbandry.

Both groups consist of members from the agricultural, biotech, LED and academic sectors, with a clear goal to work together to develop optimized LED lighting to boost output of food producers when food shortage is emerging as a global issue, coupled with ever stiffening competition confronting Taiwan's LED industry.

An official of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), while at unveiling ceremony of the alliance, presented a one-size-fits-all motto: the alliance is setting up a platform on which the members can discuss to understand mutual needs and create a win-win situation by developing new applications for each other. “Although Taiwan is well known for its success in agriculture and LED development, the two sectors have yet to cross paths and face rising competition globally. Thus, the cross-industry cooperation will benefit both.”

Dr. Tsung-Tsan Su, chairperson of the horticultural factory association and vice president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), says that the ITRI will coordinate participants to develop optimized greenhouse lighting technologies such as LED grow lights. The association's director general, C.M. Liu, says that global demand for horticultural factory will surge to cope with mounting food shortage. “Horticultural factory features low energy consumption, steady output, high production efficiency and low manpower to be a reliable way to harvest agricultural products,” he stresses. Such development is emerging in Japan, the United States and Holland, making Liu believe it's now the opportune time for Taiwan to join the trend.

Field-test Inspired
Inspired by the outcome of a field test to cultivate water bamboo with LED grow lights, Dr. T.F. Huang, in charge of the two-year program, is confident of Taiwan's entry into the new field. “The test boosted water bamboo growth by 10% and with three harvests a year instead of two on 9,700-sq.-meter land. Also, LED lamps consume 80% less electricity than sodium lights,” says Huang, Deputy Director of Division of Functions Design and Composite Materials Research of ITRI's Material and Chemical Research Laboratories.

Most of all, Huang's LED lighting setup overcame the trickiest problem of stunted growth, for horticulture is compromised in winter when daylight is the shortest.

Uneven Light
Although Taiwan's agricultural agencies already use 400W sodium lights to alleviate plant disease and boost output, without achieving desired effect. “The lights consume around NT$50 million (US$1.6 million) of electricity a year, but emit uneven light to deliver few blue and red wavelengths,” sums up Huang.

The sodium lights, according to Huang, caused inconsistent growth in bamboo. So Huang deployed strings of red and blue LED bulbs across the test field to achieve more even light distribution.

Sodium lights are inefficient not only for electrical consumption but also wavelengths for horticulture. According to Huang, the lights emit 550nm of effective wavelength, a green wavelength that plants do not need for photosynthesis. More power is needed to have the lights emit the red and blue wavelengths. The red and blue light are absorbed by chlorophyll in photosynthesis, which turn water and carbon dioxide to oxygen, water and glucose that are crucial to plant growth and mankind.

Sodium lights are simply not meant for horticulture but were developed as spatial lighting, Huang stresses.

The right lighting formula has overcome the issue of stunted growth of bamboo to achieve healthy and solid stalk.

Huang is testing growing grape and strawberry. “The horticultural factory association's ultimate goal is to find the next valuable niche for Taiwan's LED lighting industry through developing optimized lighting solutions to overcome problems in agriculture,” he concludes.

According to the ITRI, the global market for horticultural factory installations and maintenance is estimated at US$72 billion by revenue. The major markets are in Holland, Japan and the United States. Holland has a quarter of global greenhouses or some 1.1 billion square meters. Japan has 100-some horticultural factories now, nearly double the 2011 number. Around 2,200 LED light bars for plant cultivation were installed in Japan in 2011 alone, ITRI's survey shows.

Aquacultural Lighting
“The aquacultural lighting market is still insignificant as it has just begun,” comments Z.S. Lin, a market research fellow at the ITRI, whose data shows that last year Japan installed around 1,000 lights to attract fish.

But the market potential for LED aquacultural lighting shows promise. In an experiment with groupers as subject, LED lights achieved the goal to help improve quality of fish by lightening its color, igniting expectations that such light source can help Taiwan's aquaculture industry rake in an additional NT$2-5 billion (US$66-166 million) a year.?

At the founding ceremony of the aquacultural and animal husbandry LED lighting association, the century-old Hop Lion Feather Works Corp., a producer of down products in Taiwan, reportedly had successfully lightened goose down with LED cultivation lamps, without revealing the specific wavelengths.

ITIR's Huang says that wavelength is a trade secret and usually protected by patent. H.K. Chen, Project Director of Product Management Division at LED chipmaker Epistar, says the wavelength for animal husbandry lighting is about 400nm.

With Epistar the major solution provider of LED lamps for the two associations, Chen stresses that the company has chips of various wavelengths for these tailor-made demands, whether red, blue, green, or even UV wavelengths.

Low Threshold
Both Huang and Chen agree the threshold to enter the cultivation lighting sector is not high for Taiwan's LED manufacturers. Over the past few years, many of the island's leading manufacturers of various industries have ventured into the horticultural factory industry.

The Hon Hai Group has financed the National Taiwan University (NTU) NT$150 million (US$5 million) to install a commercial type horticultural factory on the university campus, planning to set up more such facility on the island using its LED and solar technologies, to grow vegetables for its one million employees or so and global consumers.

Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd., the world's No.1 LED packager and member of the two alliances, has also branched into the grow light sector, having installed such lights at an experimental greenhouse in its factory in New Taipei City, northern Taiwan.

The company recently said it had landed orders for LED grow lights from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, an American herbal plant research organization and several European agricultural equipment suppliers. The contracts come at a time when China and the United States have issued extremely cold winter warnings this year; while volatile weather will compound food shortage. Everlight executives note that grow lights are auxiliary lights for plants, making up for shorter winter daylight in high latitudes.

With Everlight's LED grow light technology maturing since its entry into this segment in 2011, in the first quarter of 2011 the maker and some 10 manufacturers including Philips reached an agreement to develop horticultural factory technologies, including grow lights, plant nutrition liquid, and ambient humidity control.

Other newcomers include Genesis Photonics Inc., the Inventec Group, Wellypower Optronics Corp., Delta Electronics Inc., the Ting Hsin International Group and Aeon Lighting Technology Inc. (ALT)

LED lighting manufacturer Genesis is running an experimental greenhouse in Yilan, northeastern Taiwan, with Inventec, an IT manufacturer, operating a phalaenopsis factory in central Taiwan, and Ting Hsin, China's No.1 instant noodle maker, cultivating eustoma in a greenhouse, LED lighting maker ALT working with a university in Taiwan to build a greenhouse entirely lit with LED grow lights.

Although Taiwan's LED technology is advanced enough for grow lighting, the future of the greenhouse lighting market depends on how soon investment cost becomes acceptable. A survey by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 2005 showed a one-hectare greenhouse cost around 310 million yen (US$4 million or NT$120 million). “The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry set up a greenhouse in 2011 in hopes of boosting demand, but was disappointed by the response. Potential users were apprehensive due to the costly investment and unsure output,” says ITRI's Lin.

However, Lin believes that prospect for the market remains bright. Climate- change-induced irregular plant growths discourage people from taking free sunlight for granted, with long periods of daylight at lower latitudes not a guarantee of steady harvest when natural disasters can also wreak havoc.