Greenhouse Energy Conservation Strategies and Alternative Fuels

Greenhouse Energy Conservation Strategies and Alternative Fuels

Summary

Develop presentation materials, articles and factsheets on greenhouse energy conservation and alternative fuels for heating greenhouses. Two workshops are to be held to present materials the curriculum materials and provide in-service training for extension agents, vocational agriculture teachers and other educators. Program outcomes include increasing the knowledge based of educator, increase the number of educators providing workshops or including content on greenhouse energy efficiency in programming. The long-term goal is for growers to increase the use of energy efficient equipment and structures and to adopt energy efficient growing practices.

Objectives/Performance Targets

1) PowerPoint presentations with speaker notes for topics related to greenhouse energy use.

2) Extension bulletins:
– Thermal/Shade Curtains
– Greenhouse Energy Conservation Strategies
– Plant Production Methods that Reduce Energy Use

3) Greenhouse Energy Model – Excel spreadsheet

4) Make curriculum materials available on the WI EERE web site.

5) Resource list of additional information.

6) Three “Train the Trainer” workshops with 25+ educators attending.

Accomplishments/Milestones

1) PowerPoint presentations with speaker notes have been developed for:

– Thermal/Shade Curtains
– Greenhouse Energy Conservation Strategies
– Plant Production Methods that Reduce Energy Use
– Biomass Heating of Greenhouses

2) Extension bulletins:
– rough draft written on use of bio-energy for greenhouses with two case studies,
– rough draft for Thermal Curtains,
– rough draft for Greenhouse Energy Conservation,
Manuscripts will be finalized for review in by March 30 and should be published by mid summer. Once published copies will be e-mailed to all participants.

3) Greenhouse Energy model – Excel spreadsheet:
– model developed.

4) Make curriculum materials available on the WI EERE web site:
– Have not started – Will be put on site in March 2010.

5) Resource list of additional information:
– Collecting list of articles, bulletins and web sites (on going).

6) Three “Train the Trainer” workshops with 25+ educators attending:
– Training workshop was held on July 1, 2009 in conjunction with the Wisconsin Association of Agricultural Educators. Ten high school Ag teachers registered and seven attended the 3 hour workshop in Middleton, WI. Materials were given to an eight teacher who had a scheduling conflict;
– The face-to-face training sessions were changed to a webinar format because of travel restrictions for many extension agents. The webinar is being held Jan 7, 12, 19 and 26th and was advertised through the extension network and SARE. The topics were as follows: Greenhouse energy conservation, Thermal Curtains, Biomass heating for greenhouses and Energy Efficient Production methods with 24, 18, 12, and 12 persons registered for the webinars, respectively;
– A second Webinar series is being scheduled for late March/April. We had many growers who wished to attend the webinar that I turned away because the grant was for educator’s professional development. The second webinar I will open to growers and educators and will be run in the late afternoon as an attempt to attract secondary school vocational Ag teachers.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Article: “Reducing energy use for greenhouse heating”, Scott Sanford, Greenhouse Management & production Magazine, August 2008 – Article discussed ten key areas where greenhouse energy use could be reduced. Circulation 21,000.

Article: “Choosing the Best Biomass Heating Option”. Scott Sanford, Greenhouse Management & production Magazine, November 2009 – Article discussed options for using biomass for heating a greenhouse.

Indiana Extension Agent Mike Ferree requested I make the greenhouse energy efficiency presentation for his “Grow 4 Market” program on Feb 18, 2010.

Erik Runkle and his graduate student Matt Blanchard have written many articles on energy efficient production methods that have compiled to articles at http://www.hrt.msu.edu/Energy/Notebook.htm.

“Manipulating Light in the Greenhouse”, Matthew Blanchard & Erik Runkle, Greenhouse Management and Production, June 2009 – The article looked at research on using intermittent lighting to initiate flowering versus continuous lighting.

Energy Efficient Annuals Series, Matthew Blanchard & Erik Runkle and others, 9 articles appeared in Greenhouse Grower Magazine from March 2009 to November 2009 – Articles focus on different annual investigating the affects of supplemental lighting and greenhouse temperature.

“Energy-efficient poinsettia production”, Erik Runkle and Jim Faust; Greenhouse Product News, August 2008.

“Installing infrared polyethylene film to save energy”, Erik Runkle; Greenhouse Product News, July 2008.

Collaborators: