TED Conversations

• Jacob Chambers
• Lafayette, IN
• United States

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Retrofitting greenhouses to make them more viable for desert agricultural production

From his talk I derived that the flexible PV material, that is soon to come out on the market, could be implemented in greenhouse designs possibly with great effect. I am proposing replacing standard glass used for the flexible PV material in a traditional hoop style/ semicircle. The ability to collect the energy from the sun could be used to power LED lighting systems that would provide the spectrum of light necessary to each specific crop. Drawing upon his ambient temperature idea I would like to also postulate that using a system of pipes run underneath the greenhouses would be capable of creating ambient temperatures suitable to crops. In colder deserts would it be possible to tap geo-thermal energy and use the same pipes that cools the greenhouses to also heat them? I viewed an interesting TED talk that discussed greenhouses that captured ocean mists for cooling and water with great effect and believe that their design could be implemented with the PV and ambient temperature designs. Thoughts and comments are greatly appreciate and most important thank you for your time.