Energy Gain in Passive Solar Greenhouses Due to CO 2 Enrichment

Anastasia Martzopoulou, Dimitris Vafiadis and Vassilios P. Fragos
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Anastasia Martzopoulou: School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Dimitris Vafiadis: Ministry of Rural Development and Food, Regional Center of Plant protection and Quality Control Thessaloniki, PO Box 60436, 57001 Thermi, Greece
Vassilios P. Fragos: School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-16

Abstract: The production cost of greenhouse cultivation depends mainly upon significant amounts of energy consumption in order to keep the optimum environmental condition for plant growth. ?he expenditure on energy, either for heating or cooling, ranges between 30% to 60% of the total production costs, and any attempt to save energy will result in a positive effect on the potentiality of production accordingly, affecting the greenhouse product prices. Research has shown that CO 2 enrichment in greenhouses significantly increases the yield of most indoor cultivation of plants of the C3 category. For these plants, when the CO 2 concentration increases by three times above that of the atmosphere (380 ppm), the optimum plant growth temperature shifts higher by 5 °C to 10 °C reaching up to 30 °C to 32 °C. Therefore, huge amounts of solar energy can be captured inside the greenhouses, as the ventilation can be decreased. Alongside this, the use of a simple passive solar system consisting of plastic sleeves filled with water is considered to be an improved way to increase the energy inside greenhouses. In this work, three experimental trials were conducted to examine the benefit of the solar energy captured inside a greenhouse during CO 2 enrichment at high temperatures. Finally, a modeling approach based on the heat loss equation was developed in order to establish the energy saving inside the greenhouses under the circumstances mentioned.

Keywords: energy saving; greenhouse; passive solar heating system; CO 2 enrichment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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