Joost Barendse of De Kabel Nursery is enthusiastic about The New Cultivation, but has a few things to say about costs as well: "The new season of the IDC Greenhouse as Energy, including two tomato greenhouses, has arrived. It is interesting to follow these developments. Last year I was pleasantly surprised by the results in the VenlowEnergy nursery. We had high production volumes and were hardly affected by botrytis. I think this year will be another winner.”
“As far as I’m concerned, the costs are still the bottle neck when it comes to these developments. You can come up with lots of interesting ideas, but they have to be affordable. Right now, it simply takes too long for this investment to carry its own weight. Take for instance the deck for the VenlowEnergy nursery, that sets me back 50 euro per m2. Who can afford that?”
“Besides,” he says, “much of the technology that is being developed isn’t yet applicable in existing greenhouses. There’s only a small number of producers that can afford to build a new greenhouse and these expensive, innovative techniques only take up a small area of the available space.”
Barendse: “I’ve been around for a few years, participating in supervisory committees in several studies. You pick up a thing or two. We’re increasingly focusing on things like moist control, and we make less use of the minimum pipe. By doing this, I think we save of about 2-3 cubic metres.”
“Energy remains a major cost issue in horticulture. It’s therefore important to continue to look for affordable solutions. There have to be cheaper alternatives.”
Source: Energiek2020
“As far as I’m concerned, the costs are still the bottle neck when it comes to these developments. You can come up with lots of interesting ideas, but they have to be affordable. Right now, it simply takes too long for this investment to carry its own weight. Take for instance the deck for the VenlowEnergy nursery, that sets me back 50 euro per m2. Who can afford that?”
“Besides,” he says, “much of the technology that is being developed isn’t yet applicable in existing greenhouses. There’s only a small number of producers that can afford to build a new greenhouse and these expensive, innovative techniques only take up a small area of the available space.”
Barendse: “I’ve been around for a few years, participating in supervisory committees in several studies. You pick up a thing or two. We’re increasingly focusing on things like moist control, and we make less use of the minimum pipe. By doing this, I think we save of about 2-3 cubic metres.”
“Energy remains a major cost issue in horticulture. It’s therefore important to continue to look for affordable solutions. There have to be cheaper alternatives.”
Source: Energiek2020
