Agrifood: Innovative lighting system for “Microcosmo”

The Microcosm, the hi-tech for growing plants using soil in closed and extreme environments, has been equipped with an innovative experimental lighting system supplied by BECAR, a company controlled by the Beghelli group and partner of the project jointly with ENEA and Gruppo FOS. The new lighting system will allow to considerably expand the range of wavelengths which can be used in precision agriculture and to modulate, independently and continuously, the various light sources, so as to significantly increase the potential for its use both in advanced research and in the cultivation of plants in unconventional environments, such as subways, airports, shopping centers, as well as extreme environments such as arctic or extraterrestrial areas.

"Our microcosms - Luigi d'Aquino of the Nanomaterials and Devices Laboratory of the ENEA Portici Center and inventor of the microcosm, explained - are actual ecosystems that can faithfully replicate in the laboratory what happens in a cultivated field, with particular environmental conditions and organisms capable of interfering with plant functions, such as pathogens or parasites ". "Thanks to this innovative lighting system, the operator can now more easily mix the various spectral components of light, i.e. the wavelengths of light which correspond to different colors (blue, red, etc.) useful for the development of plants and will be able to change their emission continuously and in a wide range of light intensity",  d'Aquino continued.

Developed as part of the project ISAAC (Innovative Lighting System for Plant Breeding in Closed Environments to improve human well-being) the microcosm, with its new lighting system, was among the protagonists of the ENEA Research Open Day 2018, with the participation of five ENEA centers in four regions (Portici in Campania, Brindisi in Apulia, Casaccia and Frascati in Lazio and Trisaia in Basilicata).