James, with vertical farming food production is at least six times more efficient per m², because growing season is 365 days / 24 hours and growth conditions are optimized. That means that single person's vegetarian diet is requiring less than 100 m². But as one store takes just about 1.5 m in height, and it is thus possible to stack several of then on top of each other. Because vertical farms are not depended on direct sunlight, this efficiency in land use, can rise 200-500 times better than when only sun light is used.
Efficiency can be boosted even further, if genetically engineered crops are used such as dwarf wheat. If I remember correctly, dwarf wheat gives in optimal green house conditions 10 times more harvest per acre than normal wheat in optimal traditional horizontal growth conditions. And we are just beginning with genetic engineering. It is also possible to distribute sunlight better, so that photosynthetic efficiency rises on that 1%. But even better it is to engineer plant specific spectrum of blue and red light and produce artificially just that light what plant is needing for photosynthesis using OLEDs or LEDs. Especially OLEDs are evolving very rapidly and they may eventually revolutionize the growth light production. –Jouni On 19 February 2012 17:54, James Bowery <[email protected]> wrote: > Humans burn calories at a rate greater than 100W. Photosynthesis, in the > best conditions (algae) converts only about 6% of insolation to biomass. > The plants typically used in vertical gardening are more like 1% efficient > at generating biomass, and of that biomass only about 20% is actually > edible calories. If you live in the desert southwest of the US, you would > require an area 500m^2 to gather enough insolation for one person -- and > that's assuming they are strict vegetarians. The year-round insolation of > places like Sweeden is less than half that of the desert southwest US so it > would be more like 1000m^2. Remember that is 1000m^2 per person of > south-facing window, and we haven't even started on protein requirements > for non-vegetarian diets. > > On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 6:21 AM, Jouni Valkonen > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Hello, >> >> First multistory vertical farm is being build into Linköping! It has in >> sun facing side a vertical farm and dark side is for offices. This is the >> way to go! Vertical farms may be initially costly, but they will get >> eventually cheaper, when technology evolves. >> >> Imagine this map to be wholly green: >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Europe_land_use_map.png >> >> I hope that this full scale pilot project will open people's eyes for the >> future technological possibilities. >> >> –Jouni >> >> >> Växthuset skjuter i höjden >> http://www.nyteknik.se/nyheter/bygg/byggartiklar/article3406014.ece >> >> >> Google translated version: >> >> Greenhouse soar >> >> By: Charlotta von >> Schultz<http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=sv&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.nyteknik.se/ovrigt/redaktionen/charlotta_von_schultz/&usg=ALkJrhh3ZCJgH1HcDaFm6hr9Z9_SFlRAaA> >> >> Published February 10, 2012 14:5545 >> comments<http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=sv&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.nyteknik.se/nyheter/bygg/byggartiklar/article3406014.ece&usg=ALkJrhiNU2eWWWC5lebMRxqqSRuLB-Vp7A#comments> >> <http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=sv&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.nyteknik.se/nyheter/bygg/byggartiklar/article3406014.ece&usg=ALkJrhiNU2eWWWC5lebMRxqqSRuLB-Vp7A#latest-comment> >> >> *Locally grown vegetables are reaching new heights. Now we build a 54 >> meter high greenhouse in Linköping.* >> >> http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyteknik.se%2Fnyheter%2Fbygg%2Fbyggartiklar%2Farticle3406014.ece >> > >
