Beautiful blooms bursting with colour and florid vivacity, flaming red tomatoes filled with juicy vitamins, and crunchy cucumbers to liven up your meal: all these products are often produced in the protective warmth and controlled lighting conditions of a commercial greenhouse. In fact, a large part of the world’s production of fruit, vegetables and ornamental plants stems from greenhouses and can thus be a contributing factor to global warming as the energy supply usually originates from non- renewable sources

However, the challenges of mitigating the emission of greenhouse gases and using energy in a more efficient manner are already being met by scientists and commercial companies around the world. In October there will be a chance to stock up on new knowledge in the area and to learn more about what is happening with regard to intelligent use of energy in greenhouses at a workshop organized by the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aarhus University in collaboration with the University of Southern Denmark and AgroTech.

The two-day workshop covers three themes: The closed or semi-closed greenhouse, Climate control in the future, and Technology in greenhouses. The speakers are from the Netherlands, Finland, France and Denmark.

Research and development of new technology have made it possible to control greenhouse climate to an extremely high degree based on plant reactions. New technology also enables surplus solar energy to be extracted for much of the year and recycled for heating during the following night or winter without affecting plant growth negatively. The Dutch have been at the forefront in this regard and the keynote speaker is Dr. Silke Hemming from the Netherlands who will speak about the possibilities of the semi-closed greenhouse.

The workshop will conclude with a visit to the commercial nursery Hjortebjerg. This nursery is at the present being set up with all manner of energy-saving technology with the aim of demonstrating new know-how in time for the climate summit meeting COP15 in Denmark later this year.

The workshop intelligent use of energy in greenhouses will be held 6-7 October 2009 at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark. Read more details about the workshop and register for the meeting.

For more information please contact: Senior scientist Carl-Otto Ottosen, Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aarhus University, telephone +45 8999 3313, email: co.ottosen@agrsci.dk

Text: Janne Hansen