Progress 07/01/22 to 03/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:The primary target audiences for this Phase I project havebeenthe grower and owner of greenhouses, as well as project team members. In the future, the vision is to broadenthis audience to all indoor agriculture, and integrate SAV systems throughout the supply chain, expanding thetarget audience to other suppliers to indoor agriculture. This multidisciplinary field requires integration of skills in engineering, horticultural science, computing, and physical sciences. The work engaged experts with these skillsthrough team interactions. For example, lighting controls company Candidus got feedback on energy aspects of its control logic that it can implement in future systems. Verdicity learned ways to overcome field implementation issuesthat apply to greenhouses. In Phase I the team held many discussions with greenhouse owners, academics, software developers, and suppliers to the industry that were outside the immediate project team. This form of outreach started conversations that will continue as the SAV product is developed. For example, in August 2023 the PI is going to present the results of this work to a VOLTTRON user group meeting, hosted by Pacific Northwest National Lab. This sharing among the technical community is key to SAV's further development and success. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project supported the PI to attenda six-session training course in greenhouse systems provided by GLASE (Cornell's Greenhouse Lightingand Systems Engineering consortium). Professional Development included attendence by the PI at the annual GLASE meeting. In addition, a summer intern worked with the PI to learn about energy uses and equipment at greenhouses and help build the SAV database. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Project results have been presented to the site greenhouse, Catoctin Mtn Growers. In addition, the PI is scheduledto present project results at an August 2023 VOLTTRON user group managed by Pacific Northwest National Lab. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The SAV Phase I project's impact has been to provide insights into greenhouse operations that were not previously available to the owner, which can leverage labor and other critical resources. This points to a gap in the commercially-available solutions for greenhouse operations. In this Phase I project, a prototype SAV system was installed at a commercial greenhouse in Maryland to evaluate the feasibility of retrofitting an IDL (independent data layer)approach at greenhouses. The tool used to collect the data was a VOLTTRON-based hub. Sinc Energy designed and specified the prototypeSAV system based on an analysis of the site energy and managementneeds. The project had four objectives, each of which is discussed below: Objective 1.Identification of potential beneficial applications of the open-source Eclipse VOLTTRON software platform on operating greenhouse / Controlled Environment Agriculture/Horticulture (CEA/H) systems for the audited greenhouse/farm systems (at least two independent systems). Major activities under Objective 1 included discussions, site visitsand data analysis of two sites, a 23-acre greenhouse in Maryland and a larger greenhouse in Ohio. Configurations weredocumented, energy usage quantified, and analysis performed to identify outcomes that would most benefit that site. The bulk of the work was at the Maryland site, where energy analysis developed a correlation between degree days and propane consumption of about 8 BTU/sq ft per negative degree day. This predictive metric is new to the owner, and can be used to anticipate usage.Another important point (though not surprising) is that the degree day basis for a greenhouse does not comport with the typical assumptions made for commercial buildings. In this case, the greenhouse thermal energy use cutoff point is about 55 degrees F. The value of having developed these key parameters is to lay groundwork for future control decision support. Baseline electricity usage, which peaks in the early spring, was also analyzed. From January to May electricity use is driven by lighting and the very active spring growing season. The baseline electricity usage of the facility is about 130-160 kW and peaks just under 400 kW. About 60 Wh/sq ft is consumed as a minimum base load, peaking to about 100 Wh/sq ft in the spring. These metrics are useful for future analysis on consumption as expansions are completed and equipment is upgraded. The ongoing data from SAV will enable better equipment and operational decisions when compared with these base conditions, helping to decide oninvestmentin futureprojects. For example, the SAV system is now collecting real-time usage data that provide much more specific insight into the benefits of installing improved control feedback loops. An example is the verified electricity consumed by lighting, which confirmedthat the controlled lights (using lighting sensors and a dimmer) reduced lighting electricity consumption compared to baseline by over 33%. The Candidus light control system is the only Equipment item purchased in the Phase I project. This system will continue to control lighting at CMG or at other locations to develop SAV. In addition toenergy data, the team gathered feedback from growers and plant scientists on their key pain points that need a solution. Discussions were held with key industry leaders, a few of whom were on the project team. The PI joined the GLASE (Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering) consortium. The outcome under Objective 1 was to identify labor leveraging, precision irrigation, energy management, demand response participation, and KPI (key performance indicator) tracking as beneficial uses of the SAV system. Objective 2.Identify ways to interface with existing devices to obtain data and enable control feedback. A challenge of workingwith existing infrastructure such as greenhouses is obtaining design and operating data. The team worked iteratively to obtain various data inputs and ingest them into the IDL. There were some successes and some workarounds. In some cases the team could only obtain data byinstalling new sensors and data loggers as an interface. While many key parameters have been successfully added to the IDL, there has not been a demonstration of control feedback yet. Interfaceshave been achieved and combined into the IDL for lighting controls, irrigation, and electricity use, as well as measurement and verification. Each of these interfaces is replicablefor future SAV systems. Objective 3.Install, customize and test a small-scale system for proof-of-concept. Design and installation of a small-scale prototype system was accomplished at Catoctin Mountain Growers' (CMG) greenhouse in Maryland. This prototype is continuing to operate and generate data. The IDL is accessible for analysis, which is where the value is provided to the greenhouse operator. There were significant learnings about ways to accessdata from existing systems. Establishing API interfaces from certain systems to the SAV IDLwas successful for three of four independent subsystems. This allowed essentially real-time data for three of the subsystems. The fourth subsystem's data was input to the IDL from daily data exports. This time delay produces data that is still useful for analysis, butis not in real time, and therefore an improved design may be needed in future systems. A key outcome of the installation and operation of this test scale system has been to showthat the SAV IDLhas value to the owner. Specifically, improvements at the test site were verified forirrigation andenergy use. A clear path is developed to provide improved predictability ofplant growth curves in the future. Objective 4.Evaluate the approach for broader market applicability. A key result from the project work has been to identify the potential for improved energy, labor and water management at greenhouses. In conversations with industry members, including owners and suppliers, it's clear that these are major concerns. The specific priorities vary by greenhouse. The potential for demand response and optimization of energy use while supporting plant health and growth is an area for growth of the SAV product.Precision irrigation is another application for SAV technology. Any of these uses enable the owner to do more with less, or to expand operations with the same resources. The trend in automating existing greenhouses is in large part about improving labor productivity as well as managing energy and other critical resources.Our demonstration system at CMGhas provided the owner information they simply did not have before.This can help them grow their business without growing staff.For example, Tyler Van Wingerden, Vice President at CMG, was quoted in the January 2023 Big Grower magazine: "I'd like to have automation augment the labor that exists, so I don't have to do that next hire. I'm not firing the existing team member, but when I add 2 acres or 5 acres or whatever it is, my team of 70 can still be a team of 70."And, "I have 70 people taking care of 5 more acres of greenhouse because automation augments their abilities." His plant scientists are critical to the business.He states that, "On this team, you have to have people who know plants . . . but sometimes physical limitations and mundane tasks like turning on faucets, walking hoses, or moving irrigation booms slows down their ability to grow more."Our SAV platform is providing CMG important data.He also stated, ". . . on the irrigation side, we have some flow meters put up on a couple of our irrigation booms now, and so we're measuring actual gallons put down on crops and then correlating that to other variables like sunlight, temperature, humidity, and things of that nature." He is referring to the data that our SAV platform is providing to CMG based upon sensors and dataloggers that we have provided with the prototype SAV system. SAV will help CMGs growers be more productive.

Publications