The marketing research company MarketsandMarkets recently released two reports which analyzed the market development for ”Smart Greenhouses” and ”LED Grow Lights”. In these reports MarketsandMarkets predict an annual growth of between 20 and 30 percent for both these segments, with the highest growth expected to be in indoor farming and vertical farming. The reports are good news for Heliospectra, a company specialized in intelligent grow lights targeted at these new types of farming environments.
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According to Heliospectras CEO Staffan Hillberg the market growth has several explanations. Indoor farming, for example, can reduce water consumption and with intelligent lighting systems growers are also able to optimize the light for every plant, thereby improving the quality of their products.
The growth in these markets is also impacted by the fact that today’s growers want to be closer to their consumers, which is leading to farming operations moving closer to the cities. In respons to this trend Heliospectra has just released Heliospectra Lightbar, a lighting system designed for vertical farming that enables more produce to be grown in a smaller area.
– We see the need to reduce transportation and have quicker deliveries by farming closer to the customers. Today there are several examples of farming in old warehouses, below ground and close to grocery stores. Today’s consumer is also prepared to pay more for a product that has the same quality year round. A tomato that you eat in Sweden in the winter should taste like a tomato grown outside in the summer, says Staffan Hillberg.
The reports by MarketsandMarkets also point out Heliospectra as one of the few truly innovative companies in the industry. According to Staffan Hillberg this is a result of Heliospectra dedicating a lot of resources to developing a new and advanced system, which both lowers the lighting costs and increases the quality of the grower’s products.
An important part of that innovation is their ”Biofeedback” system which uses advanced sensors to detect how the plants are absorbing the light and then adjusts the lighting accordingly.
Even though these systems are advanced Staffan Hillberg points out that much of Heliospectra's success is actually based on the fact that they make it easy for customers to implement the systems in a small scale and then gradually extend it with more advanced components.
One example of this philosophy is their new E60 series which is based on the same plattform as their most advanced systems; LX60 and RX30. RX30 is used primarily by researchers and agtech companies while LX60 is used by technically advanced commercial growers. The E60 series is developed as a simpler introductory product aimed specifically at large-scale growers.
– What separates Heliospectra from its competitors is our system-based approach. It allows the customer to invest in certain basic components and then add components that are part of the same system. All of the development in smart greenhouses and indoor farming requires advanced control systems and Heliospectra has one of the most advanced systems on the market but at the same time it is one of the easiest to get started with, says Staffan Hillberg.
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