CSU, Philips Partner in LED Research

Chris Beytes

Colorado State University and Philips Lighting have signed an agreement to create a state-of-the-art LED-lighting education, research and training horticulture facility at CSU.

“It all started with the stadium,” said Steve Newman, greenhouse crops extension specialist and professor of floriculture at CSU. It was the relocation of the greenhouses at the W.D. Holley Plant Environmental Research to the new CSU Horticulture Center, spurred by CSU’s impending on-campus stadium, that Steve said got him thinking about finding resources to create a new, cutting-edge horticulture facility for the campus community. “We saw this as an opportunity to work with a global leader in LED solutions,” he said.

Steve said that the new greenhouse complex, completed this past fall, is five bays totaling 15,840 ft., equipped with the newest Philips GreenPower LED top-lighting product with Philips GreenPower LED flowering lamps. One bay has Philips GreenPower LED top-lighting with Philips GreenPower LED interlighting. The structure is by Nexus; controls are by Wadsworth.

The partnership will allow CSU and Philips to perform collaborative research and focused cultivation studies on the application of advanced LED lighting for horticulture. The research is expected to optimize desired plant characteristics, including the nutritional value of city farm-produced foods, irrigation strategies, climate impact, soil conditions, thermal effects, year-round production, greenhouse food, floriculture and turf … even hops for beer, while dramatically reducing the power consumption of the lighting component of indoor growth facilities.

“The new CSU Horticulture Center will showcase new technology in LED lighting, not previously installed anywhere else in the world within the horticulture realm at a leading institution,” said Ron DeKok, business development director of horticulture LED solutions for Philips North America. “This is the most advanced LED lighting technology in the world, and CSU will be one of the first institutions of this scale to have it.” GT