Intelligent LED Lighting System for Maximised Crop Yield and Reduced Energy Use

Mixed-colour LED lights have the potential to revolutionise horticulture by supplementing natural sunlight to extend growing seasons, increase crop quality and nutritional content and control the time taken for plants to become ready for harvest. Recent advances in LED technology has led to a wide range of LED luminaires becoming available, however, barriers exist to their use due to high capital expenditure, difficulties in matching lighting configuration to growth environment and the complexities of adjusting light intensity and wavelength to the conditions required to evoke desirable crop responses. In this project, two UK SMEs and one University will build, demonstrate and evaluate a state-of-the-art intelligent LED lighting system that continuously measures light spectra in crop canopies and automatically adjusts artificial lighting levels to achieve optimised lighting conditions for improved plant propagation automatically. Fertigation and environmental parameters will be used to complement lighting measurements which together with web-based data sharing and analytics, will realise a powerful tool that will enable growers to leverage the benefits of LED lighting at lower cost and with increased energy efficiency compared to current LED lighting solutions.