New Tech Partnership Aims to Boost Greenhouse Solar Power Generation
Quantum dot glass prototype held aloft by a UbiQD Engineer. Photo: UbiQD, Inc.
UbiQD, Inc., a deep tech company specializing in nanomaterials innovation, and Heliene Inc., a provider of North American-made solar modules, have formed an agreement to embed UbiGro sunlight-optimizing technology in Heliene’s photovoltaic modules.
“As energy costs continue to rise, the controlled environment agriculture industry will have to utilize energy sources more efficiently,” says Martin Pochtaruk, CEO of Heliene. “Greenhouses and photovoltaics generate hundreds of billions of dollars of value from sunlight, and our plan is that with our agrivoltaic modules, the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts.”
“Agrivoltaics” is an emerging agriculture product category at the intersection of food and energy, wherein crop production and electricity production occur simultaneously and in the same area. For a greenhouse, this means allowing a large portion of the sunlight to pass through to the crop below, with the remaining portion being converted into solar power. This tradeoff between sunlight for crop growth and sunlight for electricity generation motivates investment in light spectrum optimization in order to grow plants as efficiently as possible. Optimizing the quality of sunlight is what UbiGro technology is designed to do, by converting direct UV/blue light from the sun’s spectrum into an orange/red glow that improves plant growth.
“UbiQD has been developing electricity-generating windows for a number of years, and we offer a line of greenhouse film products for boosting crop yield,” says Hunter McDaniel, Founder and CEO of UbiQD. “This partnership leverages our combined expertise and taps our passion for having a positive impact at the intersection of agriculture and energy.”
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