Using Demand Flexing to Transform Indoor Farms into Renewable Energy Assets

在这个项目中，我们将展示如何协调可再生能源的可用性和能源消耗，使PACE园艺设施成为不断发展的智能电网的资产。今年春天超市货架上水果和蔬菜的短缺是由多种因素造成的，包括高能源价格使英国种植者在2021/22冬季种植受保护的园艺作物。照明、供暖和通风都对种植者的能源账单有贡献，但在室内农场，照明可以占到这些成本的70%，并且光照强度对能源消耗有直接的反应（相比之下，供暖和通风会在较长时间内变化）。我们的最终目标是让PACE园艺基础设施成为电网的“可移动负荷”。这种类型的需求灵活性管理通常部署在复杂的、时间关键的工业过程中，在这些过程中，只要最终产品在可接受的公差范围内，功率消耗计划可以变化。需求弹性具有显著的商业优势，随着可控（化石燃料）能源发电在我们的电力供应中所占比例的下降，需求弹性将变得越来越重要。尽管需求弹性对PACE园艺有潜在的优势，但我们仍然需要确定不同光照对作物生长的影响。植物根据当时的环境条件改变它们的发育。因此，不同的光照条件在所生产的作物中产生变异。我们可以通过基因操纵控制植物对光反应的信号通路来控制这种“发育可塑性”。我们将评估以前生产的“永恒”植物（我们已经设计成对光信号做出一致反应）在应用需求弹性时是否能够更好地保持作物产量、质量和均匀性。在这个项目中，我们有三个不同的目标；1)我们需要证明需求弹性适用于PACE园艺，这样我们就可以优化能源使用，同时最大限度地提高作物产量。2)我们需要了解如何将需求弹性与现有的灵活光照制度相结合，以最大限度地提高作物产量和质量。3)我们需要确认我们的基因工程“永恒”植物在需求调整期间具有统一的性能，以便我们能够最大限度地提高作物生产力并实现净零目标。目的利用我们对作物光生物学和现有遗传资源的了解，了解如何最好地将需求柔性应用于PACE园艺。1)我们将评估在典型需求弹性方案下种植的作物的生长和生化特性，以证明该方法的实用性。2)我们将评估如何将需求弹性与不同的光照制度相结合，以最大限度地提高作物产量。3)我们将评估PACE园艺中“永恒”植物的表现，以便在需求弹性应用期间最大限度地提高作物生产力。应用和效益PACE园艺作为不断发展的智能电网中的灵活资产的定位将为种植者带来商业利益，并将提高该行业的生存能力。提高PACE园艺的商业可行性将允许基础设施与可再生能源发电地点一起分布。这种分布式生产的社会效益将超出其产品本身所带来的效益。例如，在社区内分布较小规模的室内农场将减少食物里程，并在这些地区提供就业机会，从而实现能源使用的公正过渡。

In this project we will demonstrate how coordinating renewable energy availability with energy expenditure enables PACE horticulture facilities to be an asset to the evolving smart energy grid.The lack of fruit and vegetables on supermarket shelves this spring arose from a multitude of factors, including high energy prices discouraging UK growers from planting protected horticultural crops during winter 2021/22. Lighting, heating, and ventilation each contribute to energy bills for growers but lighting can comprise 70% of these costs in indoor farms and light intensity is immediately responsive to energy consumption (in contrast to heating and ventilation which vary over longer time periods). Our ultimate goal is to allow PACE horticulture infrastructure to present itself as a "shiftable load" to the electricity grid. This type of demand flexibility management is often deployed in complex, time-critical industrial processes where power consumption schedules can be varied provided that the final product falls within acceptable tolerances. Demand flexing has significant commercial advantages and will be increasingly important as controllable (fossil fuel) energy generation decreases as a proportion of our electricity supply.Despite the potential advantages of demand flexing for PACE horticulture we still need to determine how crop growth is affected by varied light irradiation. Plants alter their development dependent on prevailing environmental conditions. Varied light regimes consequently produce variation within the crops produced. We can control this 'developmental plasticity' by genetically manipulating the signalling pathways which control plants responses to light. We will assess whether previously generated 'timeless' plants (which we have designed to respond uniformly to light signals) are better able to maintain crop yield, quality, and uniformity when demand flexing is applied.In this project we have three distinct aims;1) We need to demonstrate that demand flexing is applicable in PACE horticulture so that we can optimise energy usage whilst maximising crop productivity.2) We need to understand how demand flexing can be integrated with existing flexible light regimes to maximise crop yield and quality.3) We need to confirm that our genetically engineered 'timeless' plants have uniform performance during demand flexing so that we can maximise crop productivity and achieve Net Zero goals.ObjectivesWe will exploit our understanding of crop photobiology and existing genetic resources to understand how best to apply demand flexing to PACE horticulture.1) We will assess the growth and biochemical characteristics of crops grown under exemplar demand flexing schemes to demonstrate the utility of this approach.2) We will assess how demand flexing can be integrated with a varied light regime to maximise crop yield.3) We will assess the performance of 'timeless' plants in PACE horticulture so that we can maximise crop productivity during the application of demand flexing.Applications and BenefitsThe positioning of PACE horticulture as flexible assets in the evolving smart electricity grid will have commercial benefits for growers and will enhance the viability of the industry. Increased commercial viability of PACE horticulture will allow the distribution of infrastructure alongside sites of renewable energy generation. This distributed production will have societal benefits beyond those conferred by their produce alone. For instance, a distributed placement of smaller scale indoor farms within communities will reduce food mileage and provide job opportunities within these areas, enabling a Just Transition in energy use.