D24—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 12,1984 r
Lea
4 Farming-under-glass’ project to expand
DANVILLE The Montour
waste-heat greenhouse project,
already the largest complex of its
kind in the country, is going to be
expanded this year.
The Pennsylvania Industrial
Development Authority approved
a low-interest loan Wednesday last
week for AgrowNautics Inc., clear
ing the way for construction of its
1-acre greenhouse to begin. The
company, headquartered in
Salisbury, Conn., .plans to raise
leaf lettuce and possibly other
vegetables under controlled en
vironment conditions in its
greenhouse, to be located near
Pennsylvania Power & Light Co.’s
Montour Steam Electric Station
north of Danville.
Another grower - Green Empire
Inc. of Paterson, N.J. - plans to
develop 93 acres of forest between
the Montour power plant and the
Montour Preserve, where gourmet
mushrooms will be grown on oak
logs. The company also plans to
build a 1-acre greenhouse next
year that will be used to grow
mushcrooms during the winter
months, and as a warehouse.
Green Empire is expected to
seek PIDA financing for its
facilities m the near future.
The new growers will be joining
two other greenhouse operators in
the Montour “industrial park.”
Bryfogle’s Inc., of Muncy, and
Peppendge Farm Inc., of Nor
walk, Conn., each currently
operate 6-acre greenhouses at the
ite.
Bryfogle’s raises a variety of
flowers, and Peppendge Farm
grows tomatoes for the fresh
produce market. The combined
growing area of the greenhouses is
roughly the size of eight football
fields.
Use Waste heat
A major feature that has drawn
these growers to the Montour site
is an inexpensive and abundant
space-heating source - power
plant discharge heat. Warm water
from the condenser-cooling system
of PP&L’s coal-fired Montour
plant is piped to each of the
Heidi Bieber, a worker at Pepperidge Farm Inc.’s 6-acre
greenhouse in Montour County, inspects tomato plants.
During the company's peak season, 50,000 pounds of
tomatoes are shipped from the greenhouse each week to
gourmet markets in the Northeast.
greenhouses, where the water is
distributed through pipes beneath
the greenhouse floor.
Another incentive PP&L now of
fers growers to encourage them to
build new greenhouses or to ex
pand existing greenhouses within
the utility’s service area is a
special off-peak rate for those who
use supplemental lighting in their
crops’ growing process. This new
rate is being offered to growers
throughout the company’s 29-
county service area.
The Montour greenhouse project
has served as a model for similar
projects throughout the country,
and it has attracted the attention of
greenhouse operators, scientists
and others worldwide, said Arch G.
Knisely, Economic Development &
Community Service Manager,
Lancaster Division.
Origins of Project
For many years, PP&L has been
interested in finding practical
ways to use the large amount of
heat discharged through the cool
ing systems of steam electric sta
tions. Here’s how the heat is
generated:
In steam electric-generating
plants, fuel is burned to produce
heat. The heat is used to convert
water into steam. The steam
rushes from the boiler to spm the
blades of a turbine, which, in turn,
spins a generator. An elec
tromagnet in the generator, turn
ing inside a large coil of wire, pro
duces electricity.
Once the steam has passed
through the turbine, it must be
changed back into water so it can
be recirculated and reheated.. In
converting or condensing the spent
steam back to water, a great deal
of heat is released and removed
through the condenser-cooling
system.
One of the limitations in using
this discharge heat is its relatively
low temperature. The water is
about 100 degrees Fahrenheit when
it leaves the plant’s condenser
cooling system, which is not hot
enough for most industrial pro
cesses.
Y/~~~
lettuce and gourmet mushrooms
-V
A variety of flowers, including mums, Easter lilies, geraniums and gloxinias, are raised
in Bryfogle’s Inc. two 3-acre greenhouses located near Pennsylvania Power & Light Co.’s
Montour Steam Electric Station north of Danville.
However, this inexpensive,
abundant, reliable and under
utilized heating source is ideal for
heating greenhouses. Many
greenhouse operators, particularly
in Pennsylvania, have been forced
out of the market by competition
from southern and western states,
and by foreign countries with
warmer climates, which do not
have high heating costs.
PP&L also is exploring the use of
power-plant waste heat to provide
an ideal environment for raising
fish. Warm water from the utility’s
Brunner Island Steam Electric
Station south of Harrisburg is used
as the heating source for the com
pany’s fish farm. That complex
also includes a small waste-heat
greenhouse.
Growth potential
The growth potential of the pro
ject is great, considering that the
greenhouses now use about 1 per
cent of the available waste heat
from the Montour plant. As the
project continues to expand, its im
pact on the local economy will be
significant, said Knisely.
Greenhouses typically employ
three to five people per acre of
growing area. PP&L is now
evaluating nearby land to allow for
continued expansion of the Mon
tour complex.
PP&L is hoping that its new
electric-service rate for
greenhouses will be a “shot in the
arm” that the industry needs to
return to Central Eastern Penn
sylvania, said Knisely.
In December 1983, the Penn
sylvania Public Utility Commis
sion approved a rate proposed by
PP&L to better meet the needs of
artificially lighted greenhouse
operations This new rate helps
PP&L to make more efficient use
of its power plants by increasing
electric use in off-peak periods
when demand is relatively low
Greenhouse technology is
becoming increasingly
sophisticated, and it enables
greenhouse operators to grow a
variety of crops year-round. Some
crops need intensive lighting dur
ing specific phases of their
development, others need sup
plemental lighting during the fall,
winter and spring, when periods of
sunlight are limited
Under the new rate schedule,
greenhouses and other en
vironmentally controlled growing
facilities that use a minimum of
300 kilowatts for supplemental
lighting qualify for PP&L's lower
off-peak rates for 16 hours per day
on weekdays tor their lighting
loads
PP&L s cm i cut on-peak period --
when demand Ini elcitri'ih is
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New rate
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Controlled-environment agriculture is used in Pepperidge
Farm Inc.’s 6-acre greenhouse. With this method, the plants
are not grown in either soil or water. Each plant is anchored
in its own pot, the open bottom of which looks like the spokes
of a wheel. The potted plants are nestled into large rec
tangular bags that are filled with peat and vermiculite. The
plants are fed a carefully formulated nutrient mixture that
flows to each plant's roots through plastic tubing that passes
through each bag.
greater and its costs for supplying
electricity are higher - extends
from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m weekdays.
The off-peak period is from 9 p.m
to 7 a.m. weekdays, and 24 hours
per day on weekends and holidays.
With the new rate, greenhouse
operators are able to purchase
electricity to meet their lighting
requirements at the lower off-peak
rates from 4 p.m to 8 am.
weekdays, and all day on
weekends and holidays. However,
PP&L is permitted to interrupt the
lighting load during the company’s
on-peak period, with a one-hour
prior notice to the growers, if the
electricity is needed elsewhere in
PP&L's system.
Lettuce needs light
AgrowNautics Inc. plans to take
advantage of this greenhouse rate
* i
in its 1-acre greenhouse. The com
pany's method of growing lettuce -
its primary crop - is dependent on
artificial lighting. For about a
third of the lettuce’s 42-day grow
ing period, the plants are placed in
a well-insulated "growing
chamber,” where high-pressure
sodium vapor lights are used 20
hours a day.
AgrowNautics currents
operates greenhouses in Salisbury,
Conn, and Hopewell Junction, N.Y
where lettuce and other crops are
grown hydropomcally i without
Soil). The company is planning a
similar operation near the Mon
tour power plant.
Green Empire is planning to
market Shiitake mushrooms m
(Turn to Page D 26)
Gourmet mushrooms