When bees can't get to crops, these robots step in
Colony collapse disorder, harmful pesticides, and climate change have all contributed to the global decline of bee species. This is not only an urgent biodiversity problem but also an issue for our global food systems since a lot of our crops rely on these little insects for pollination. Produce Read More...
Transparent solar cell greenhouses could grow food and produce energy
Solar power is one of the fastest-growing forms of renewable energy, so there are many initiatives that are trying to see how solar can be combined with other industries, like agriculture, to become even more effective. We at The Optimist Daily have already written about agrivoltaic farming, Read More...
This tech makes sunlight more potent so normal greenhouses can grow more
Indoor farming startups are known to grow crops using efficient LED light bulbs with custom “light recipes” that adjust the color of the LEDs to help plants grow faster. With that said, all these lighting systems using LED bulbs still use a huge amount of energy, which is why scientists have Read More...
These semi-transparent solar cells could make greenhouse self-sufficient
Greenhouses and solar panels both need to be placed in areas with a lot of sunlight – so why not combine the two? Semi-transparent solar cells could potentially be built into the glass roof panels of greenhouses, capturing light at wavelengths that plants don’t use anyway. Now, researchers at Read More...
A high-tech sustainable greenhouse is about to be built in coal country
Kentucky may be coal country, but that’s not stopping entrepreneurs from introducing sustainability to the state. In Morehead, a small town where roughly one in three people live below the poverty line, a company called AppHarvest is constructing a massive new 60-acre high-tech greenhouse will be Read More...