Agriculture: ENEA awarded for studies on vertical greenhouses

ENEA was awarded the ALBA prize for innovative studies in the field of Vertical Farms, vertical greenhouses based on the hydroponic cultivation of plants without soil consumption and use of pesticides.

Awarded every two years by the Association for Lifestyle, Wellness and Food (ALBA), the prize was accepted by the ENEA researcher Gabriella Funaro.

“The Vertical Farm is one of the solutions of third millennium agriculture for cultivating vegetables in a soilless, multi-layered, integral closed-cycle system, i.e in a closed-loop water recycling system, in a protected and air-conditioned environment without the use of pesticides and insecticides ”, Funaro explained.

"Vertical farming, based on the concept of growing crops in vertically stacked layers independent of soil, gives us the opportunity to promote the agriculture of the future, greatly conserving natural resources”, the researcher continued.

In addition to requiring less space than traditional growing methods, cultivations inside the Vertical Farm don’t need soil, just water and nutrients.

"This system, called hydroponics, grows crops on substrates other than soil  - such as pressed peat, expanded clay or rock wool - with minimum amounts of continuously recycled water in which nutrient solutions are dissolved.

Plant growth is ensured by LED lighting that replicates natural sunlight and accelerates chlorophyll photosynthesis, " Funaro said.

The ALBA prize, awarded to the Arma dei Carabinieri and the encyclical "Laudato Sii" by Pope Francis in the last editions, inaugurates a series of initiatives which involve ENEA and vertical farming, including RI-GENERA, jointly with Idromeccanica Lucchini, University of Padua, Advance Srl, Assindustria Veneto, Coldiretti Padua, Galileo Science and Technology Park.

"Through RI-GENERA we want to promote the reconversion of abandoned urban buildings into vertical greenhouses. The prospect is very favorable:  for each hectare of horizontal land many others could be developed vertically, much more productive because crops are not affected by seasonality and can be grown continuosly”, Funaro concluded.

The RI-GENERA initiative will be officially presented at the conference "Cities for the future - Regeneration and development" to be held in Padua on 16 October 2019. On this occasion ENEA will provide two vertical farming systems called BoxXLand and Arkeofarm, both suitable for installation in existing buildings and developed together with Idromeccanica Lucchini.

ENEA presented the first Italian Vertical Farm at EXPO 2015 in Milan. The prototype, made for the occasion, was a 5 meter high vertical greenhouse used for the cultivation of lettuce and basil, with a yield almost double that of traditional crops (from 6 to 14 harvest cycles / year for the salad) and 95% water savings (2 liters /kg of lettuce compared to 40-45 liters / kg in the field).

For more information please contact:

Gabriella Funaro, ENEA -  Direzione Committenza, gabriella.funaro@enea.it

Community definition of central purchasing bodies dedicated to contracting authorities.