The Living Rainforest Sustainable Greenhouses

Gerard Bot1, Karl Hansen2, Andrew Logan2, Henk Witte3 and Feije de Zwart1

1 Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture 2 The Living Rainforest, Hampstead Norris, UK 3 Groenholland, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Introduction Sustainable greenhouses Seasonal energy storage To be realised Link to production greenhouses

The Living Rainforest?

Introduction

Charity, demonstrates the ecology of the living rainforest to the general public

renovation of existing buildings: show case for sustainability demonstrate the link between ecology and sustainability

Sustainable greenhouses

Greenhouse properties for low heat demand: cover insulation

energy friendly climate control: climate settings and strategy

efficient conversion of primary energy to heat

the “engine” of the greenhouse

coverk-value (W/m2K)

single glass 5.7

Double or 1+screen 3.0

triple or 2+screen 2.3

HR++* 1.6

Vacuum glas* 1.0

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

k (W/m2K)

Rel. Econs (%)

boiler

Cover insulation and heat demand

coverk-value (W/m2K)

single glass 5.7

Double or 1+screen 3.0

triple or 2+screen 2.3

HR++* 1.6

Vacuum glas* 1.0

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

k (W/m2K)

Rel. Econs (%)

boiler

Cover insulation and heat demand

heat-demand

energy in:

boiler

heat demand energy in: work

Heat

Pump

seasonal

storage

Cover insulation and heat demand

Seasonal storage

Aquifer: 2 wells at different temperature

filling warm aquifer

emptying cold aquifer (greenhouse is cooled)

17 oC 7 oC

heat exchanger

Summer period: excess heat

Winter period

17 oC 7 oC

heat

pump

heat exchanger

emptying warm aquifer: greenhouse is heated filling cold aquifer

Seasonal storage

Aquifer: 2 wells at different temperature energy storage: specific geological conditions

Ground Source Heat Exchanger: passive storage via boreholes

not available at TLR

high

evaporatorlowcondensorhighCarnot T

TT )()(

high

lowhighpraktical T

TTc

Heat Pump:

Average GSHE fluid temperatures year 1 till 5for different strategies

emphasis onheating

balanced

emphasis oncooling

Average GSHE fluid temperature for year 1 to 25 (final stage) with emphasis on cooling the building

-5.00

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

JA

N

FE

B

MA

R

AP

R

MA

Y

JU

N

JU

L

AU

G

SE

P

OC

T

NO

V

DE

C

month

Flu

id t

em

pera

ture

(o

C)

Year 1

Year 2

Year 5

Year 10

Year 25

Design: number of boreholes and depth from local geology and dynamic interaction of GSHE and greenhouse for 25 y

To be realised:

Climate control: high RH desiredEnergy conversion: - GSHE + Heat Pump - wood fired boiler for back-up

Cover: TLR light is not a bottle neck: k= 1.5 – 2 Wm-2K-1

Energy system of greenhouses, offices and visitors centre integrated

TLR show case

general public: - principles applicable at home - link ecology and sustaibnability

production greenhouses: demonstrates sustainable operation visualises application bottlenecks

Thank you for your

attention