Horticultural lighting experts and industry leaders to debunk common misconceptions and address growers’ concerns during September 8 virtual panel discussion
MEDFORD, MA –The DesignLights Consortium (DLC) will host a webinar on Wednesday, September 8, aimed at helping growers and other stakeholders learn the facts about LED horticultural lighting, while debunking common misconceptions about the technology and its effectiveness.
“Mythbusting! Horticultural LED Lighting” will provide webinar participants with valuable advice and perspectives from an array of industry leaders, including:
- Kasey Holland, DLC Horticultural Lighting Program Manager
- Leora Radetsky, DLC Senior Lighting Scientist
- Erico Mattos, Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering Consortium Executive Director
- Lauren Morlino, Evergreen Consulting Group’s Technical Manager for controlled environment agriculture, emerging technologies, and underserved communities, and
- John Wilson, founding director of Fernhill Shopworks, a market research and strategy firm serving utilities and the lighting industry.
“Lighting is a crucial factor for optimizing growth in controlled environment agriculture. Unfortunately, misconceptions abound regarding the effectiveness of horticultural LEDs, thwarting widespread adoption of a technology capable of significantly reducing electricity consumption and driving energy savings,” DLC Technical Director Stuart Berjansky said. “As horticultural lighting accounts for an increasing share of electric load for many utilities, our panel will separate myths from facts and address growers’ concerns regarding the use of LED lighting solutions.”
The webinar will cover topics such as LED lighting performance, “smart” lighting, and the general feasibility of LED lighting in controlled environment agriculture (CEA). The DLC’s goal is to help growers recognize and discard outdated thinking about LEDs, differentiate the pros and cons of LEDs vs. high pressure sodium lamps; and explore the performance of LED lighting in CEA today, as well as capabilities expected in the future.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) last year reported that US horticultural lighting installations consumed 9.6 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in 2019, up from about 5.9 TWh in 2017. The DOE noted that if all indoor horticultural lighting today was converted to LED technology, annual horticultural lighting consumption would decrease to 6.3 TWh, representing energy savings of 34 percent or $350 million. In the face of these statistics, the September 8 webinar supports the DLC’s continuing efforts to promote wider adoption of high performance, energy efficient products in indoor horticultural operations. The latest version of the DLC’s Horticultural Lighting Technical Requirements (V2.1) will go into effect in September.
Register for the webinar here.
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About the DesignLights Consortium
The DesignLights Consortium® (DLC) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to achieve energy optimization by enabling controllability with a focus on quality, people, and the environment. The DLC promotes high-quality, energy-efficient lighting products in collaboration with utilities and energy efficiency program members, manufacturers, lighting designers, and federal, state, and local entities. Through these partnerships, the DLC establishes product quality specifications, facilitates thought leadership, and provides information, education, tools and technical expertise.
