By Anthony Wright | gasworld.com
With one company, Lauvsnes Gartneri, yielding up to 4 million tomatoes each year, this equates to around 1500 tomatoes for each resident of the 2,600-population town.
Holding its own festival to celebrate the rosy-red fruit, Finnoy has decided to merge its penchant for tomato production with a push for a more sustainable agricultural future.
In order to reduce its carbon footprint, Lauvsnes Gartneri has installed new climate technology inside its greenhouses.
Owner Jan Terje Vigness said, “Creating the best possible experience for our tomato-loving customers entails being at the forefront of new technology and societal trends.”
“The future is climate neutral, which means that tomatoes must also contribute by putting new climate technology to good use in our greenhouses.”
Lauvsnes Gartneri will collaborate with technology company GreenCap Solutions to implement climate neutrality measures. By utilising its home-grown unique, patented, large-scale carbon dioxide removal solution, GreenCap is able to sustainably increase food production in greenhouses by monitoring temperature, humidity, and CO2 level.
“Because it is a closed system, it is easier to achieve the right concentration of CO2 in the air, which allows for optimal growth.”, said CEO of GreenCap Solutions, Bjørn Rygg. He continued, “The new technology does not give any emissions to its surroundings while in use and the solution is 100% climate neutral.”
With Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology also becoming a prominent method of large-scale CO2 reduction, the company are also using this process to capture CO2 from the air and store it before releasing the correct concentration into the growth zone inside the greenhouse. Ensuring a chemical-free process, GreenCap use zeolite as the capture material.
In order to help implement this new technology, the partnership has received financial support from government owned greenhouse gas reduction scheme, Enova, under the full-scale innovative energy and climate technology programme.
About the funding opportunity, Rygg said, “We are proud to have Enova support our project, which is positive both for tomatoes and for the climate.” “And I must admit that it is fun to be able to say that we are fighting greenhouse gases by providing greenhouse technology.”
Upon its 2022 completion date, the production at Lauvsnes Gartneri will be 100% carbon neutral.