“We’re not what people might think of when they picture traditional marijuana growers,” said Keith Sprau. “From the beginning, we’ve planned this operation from a pragmatic business perspective. We’re doing everything we can to optimize our operation, and LumiGrow is a big part of that. We’ve tried products from three other manufacturers and LumiGrow makes the best LED grow lights we’ve seen.”
While the company’s stage one 10,080-square-foot greenhouse complex is nearing completion, work has already begun on stage two that will double the capacity of the current structures. LED fixtures for both stages have already been purchased. The Spraus have confidence that using LED lights is going to save energy and money because they have field tested LumiGrow Pro 650 lights in the company’s 20 x 20 foot research and development grow space and saw up to 60 percent less power use than they had expected based on comparisons with other kinds of lighting. Probably of more importance to Colorado Leaf’s customers, the product they’ve grown is indistinguishable from the best found elsewhere.
“We’ve been putting the spectrum control capabilities of the LumiGrow Pro 650 fixtures to good use,” said Brett Sprau. “We adjust the spectrum as needed — mostly letting the plants thrive under blue light, and turning red off — and we’ve seen no internodal stretching while growing fat bushes.”
Colorado Leaf is saving money on more than just its monthly electric bill. As is the case with many utilities encouraging the use of energy saving devices, the company’s electricity provider, San Isabel Electric Association (SIEA), rebated $20,000 of the initial cost of the first order of LED lights. Sprau says they are hopeful SIEA might rebate even more on the second order as their contacts at the utility have expressed serious interest in the energy conservation possibilities offered by using LEDs. Recent report of the effect of cannabis production on Colorado’s energy consumption show why this has become such an important issue for utilities. According to a story posted on The Atlantic magazine’s City Lab website in July 2015, cannabis growers currently account for 45 percent of the 1.2 percent yearly increase in Denver’s electricity use. If all growers in the Denver area were to convert to using LED lights, the increase in total energy consumption could be cut by more than half a percent.
“Cannabis growers tend to be ‘green’ in most areas of their lives, but when it comes to their production practices, all too often environmental concerns are forgotten,” said Adam Gifford, President, CoGrowCo, an authorized LumiGrow value added reseller. “The team at Colorado Leaf is dedicated to using sustainable techniques and products. With LumiGrow LED lights, they’re producing the highest quality cannabis using a fraction of the energy of high intensity discharge lights.”
While it is at the heart of the operation’s energy saving efforts, the use of LED lights is just one of the tactics that Colorado Leaf uses to be as environmentally friendly as possible. The crops it produces will be all organic so they won’t need to use 36,000 gallons of water a month to flush toxic chemicals from the plants, both saving water and preventing chemical runoff from leeching into the soil. Also, the company has installed diffusion solar panels on the roofs of the greenhouses to generate supplemental electricity.
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