Light is the basic environmental factor for plant growth and development. Light not only supplies energy for plant growth through photosynthesis, but is also an important regulator of plant growth and development. By supplementing artificial light or irradiating plants with full artificial light, it can promote plant growth, increase yield, improve product form, color, and enhance functional ingredients, and can also reduce the occurrence of pests and diseases. Today, I will share with you the development status and trends of the plant lighting industry.
The application of artificial light source technology in the field of plant lighting is becoming more and more extensive. LED has many advantages such as high luminous efficiency, low heat generation, small size, long life, etc., and has obvious advantages in the field of plant lighting. Mainly lighting.
First, the development status of LED plant lighting industry
1. Plant lighting package
In the field of plant lighting packaging, there are many types of packaging devices without a unified measurement and evaluation standard system. The major foreign manufacturers are mainly in the direction of high power, COB and modules, taking into account the white light series of plant lighting, combined with plant growth characteristics and humanized lighting environment. The products have great technical advantages in reliability, light efficiency, photosynthetic irradiation characteristics of different plants in different growth periods, etc., including various high-power, medium-power and low-power products of different sizes, According to the needs of different growth environments, it is expected to achieve the goal of maximizing plant growth and energy saving. However, in recent years, domestic companies also have the development potential and labor price advantage.
A large number of core patents for chip epitaxial wafers are still in the hands of early leading companies such as Japan’s Nichia and American Cree, and domestic chip manufacturers still lack market-competitive patented products. At the same time, many companies are also developing new technologies in the field of horticultural lighting packaging chips. For example, OSRAM thin-film chip technology enables the chips to be tightly packaged together to create a large-area lighting surface. The high-efficiency LED lighting system with a wavelength of 660nm based on this technology can reduce the 40% of the energy consumption in the cultivation area.
2. Plant lighting spectrum and devices
The spectrum of plant lighting is complex and diverse. Different plants have different growth cycles and even different growth environments, and the required spectrum is quite different. In order to meet these differentiated needs, there are currently the following schemes in the industry: ① A variety of monochromatic light combination schemes, with the most effective peaks for plant photosynthesis at 450nm and 660nm spectrum and the 730nm band for plant flowering induction. There are three main spectrums, plus the green light of 525nm and the ultraviolet band below 380nm. These spectrums are combined to form the most suitable spectrum according to the different needs of plants. ②Full-spectrum scheme, to achieve full coverage of plant demand spectrum, SUNLIKE represented by Seoul Semiconductor and Samsung, this kind of spectrum may not be the most efficient, but it is suitable for all plants, and the cost is much lower than the monochromatic light combination scheme. ③Mainly full spectrum white light, plus 660nm red light combination scheme, to improve the effectiveness of the spectrum. This scheme is more economical and practical.
Plant lighting monochromatic light (mainly 450nm, 660nm, 730nm) packaged devices are covered by many domestic and foreign companies, while domestic products are more complex in variety and specifications, and foreign manufacturers’ products are more standardized. There is still a big gap between domestic and foreign packaging manufacturers such as light efficiency. In addition to the products with the main wavelength bands of 450nm, 660nm and 730nm, many manufacturers are also developing new products in other wavelength bands to achieve complete photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) wavelength coverage (450 nm) of monochromatic light packaging devices for plant lighting -730nm).
Monochromatic light LED plant growth lights are not suitable for the growth of any plants. The advantages of full-spectrum LEDs are therefore highlighted. The full-spectrum must first achieve full coverage of the full spectrum of visible light (400-700nm), and improve the blue-green light (470-510nm). ) and deep red light (660-700nm). Using ordinary blue LED or ultraviolet LED chip with phosphor to achieve “full” spectrum, its photosynthetic efficiency is different. Most manufacturers of plant lighting white LED packaging devices use Blue chip + phosphors to achieve full spectrum. In addition to the packaging mode of monochromatic light and blue light or ultraviolet chip plus phosphor to realize white light, the plant lighting package device also has a composite packaging mode using two or more wavelength chips, such as red ten blue/ultraviolet, RGB, RGBW . This package mode has great advantages in dimming.
In terms of narrow-wavelength LED products, most packaging suppliers can provide customers with various wavelengths in the 365-740nm band. In terms of the spectrum of plant lighting converted by phosphors, most packaging manufacturers have a variety of spectrums for customers to choose from. Compared with 2016, its sales growth rate in 2017 has achieved a relatively large increase. The growth rate of 660nm LED light sources is concentrated at 20%-50%, while the sales growth rate of phosphor-converted plant LED light sources reaches 50%-200%. %, that is, the sales of phosphor-converted plant LED light sources are growing faster.
All packaging companies can provide general-purpose packaging products of 0.2-0.9 W and 1-3 W. These light sources allow luminaire manufacturers to have good flexibility in luminaire design. In addition, some manufacturers also provide higher power integrated package products. At present, more than 80% of the shipments of most manufacturers are 0.2-0.9 W or 1-3 W. Among them, the shipments of international leading packaging companies are concentrated in 1-3 W, while the shipments of small and medium-sized packaging companies are concentrated in 0.2-0.9 W.
3. Fields of plant lighting applications
From the field of application, plant lighting lamps are mainly used in greenhouse fill light, full artificial light plant factory, plant tissue culture, field (greenhouse) fill light, household vegetable and flower planting and laboratory research.
① In solar greenhouses and multi-span greenhouses, the proportion of artificial light for supplementary light is still low, and metal halide lamps and high-pressure sodium lamps are the main ones. The penetration rate of LED plant lighting systems is low, but the growth rate increases with the cost. The decline began to accelerate, mainly because users have had a long experience of using metal halide lamps and high-pressure sodium lamps, and the use of metal halide lamps and high-pressure sodium lamps not only avoids burning plants, but also provides about 6% to 8% of the greenhouse. % of thermal energy. However, the LED plant lighting system does not provide specific and effective instructions and data support, which delays its application in sunlight and multi-span greenhouses. At present, it is still dominated by small-scale demonstration applications. Since LED is a cold light source, it can be relatively close to the plant canopy, resulting in less temperature impact. In sunlight and multi-span greenhouses, LED plant lighting is mostly used for interplant fill light lamps.
② Field (greenhouse) application. The penetration and application of plant lighting in facility agriculture is relatively slow, while the application of LED plant lighting systems (photoperiod regulation) for outdoor long-day crops with high economic value (such as dragon fruit) has achieved rapid development.
③ Plant factory. At present, the fastest and most widely used plant lighting system is the all-artificial light plant factory, which is divided into centralized multi-layer and distributed mobile plant factories according to categories. The development of all artificial light plant factories in China is very rapid. The main investors of the centralized multi-layer artificial light plant factory are not traditional agricultural companies, but more companies engaged in semiconductor and consumer electronics products, such as Zhongke Sanan, Foxconn, Panasonic Suzhou, JD.com, and also COFCO, Xixi Cui and other new modern agricultural companies. In distributed mobile plant factories, shipping containers (new or rebuilt second-hand containers) are still the standard carriers. Most of the plant lighting systems in artificial plant factories use linear or flat-panel array lighting systems. The number of planting varieties continues to expand. LED light sources with various experimental light formulations have begun to be widely used and widely used. The products on the market are mainly green leafy vegetables.
④ Household plant cultivation. LED can be used in household plant table lamps, household plant planting racks, household vegetable growing machines, etc.
⑤ Cultivation of medicinal plants. Cultivation of medicinal plants such as clematis, canker sore, etc., the products in these markets have higher economic value and are currently an industry with more plant lighting applications. In addition, the legalization of cannabis cultivation in North America and parts of Europe has promoted the application of LED plant lighting in the field of cannabis cultivation.
⑥ Flowering lights. As an essential tool for adjusting the flowering time of flowers in the flower and horticultural industry, the earliest applied flowering lamps were incandescent lamps, followed by energy-saving fluorescent lamps. With the progress of LED industrialization, more LED-type flowering lamps have gradually replaced traditional lamps.
⑦ Plant tissue culture. Traditional tissue culture light sources are mainly white fluorescent lamps, which have low luminous efficiency and high calorific value. LEDs are more suitable for plant tissue culture with high efficiency, controllability and compact space due to their remarkable features such as low power consumption, low heat generation, and long life. At present, white LED lamps are gradually replacing white fluorescent lamps.
Second, the development trend of LED plant lighting industry
1. Specialization
LED plant lighting has good waterproof performance due to its adjustable spectrum and light quantity, and low overall heat generation. It is suitable for plant lighting in various scenarios. At the same time, due to changes in the natural environment and people’s pursuit of food quality, it has promoted the vigorous development of facility agriculture and plant factories, and has also brought the LED plant lighting industry into a period of rapid development. In the future, LED plant lighting will improve agricultural production efficiency and improve It plays an important role in food safety and improving the quality of fruits and vegetables. LED light sources for plant lighting will further develop with the gradual specialization of the industry and move in a more targeted direction.
2. Efficiency
The improvement of light efficiency and energy efficiency is the key to greatly reducing the operating cost of plant lighting. The use of LEDs to replace traditional lamps and the dynamic optimization and adjustment of the light environment according to the light formula requirements of plants from seedling stage to harvest period is an inevitable trend of fine agriculture in the future. In terms of improving yield, according to the developmental characteristics of plants, cultivation can be carried out in stages and sub-regions combined with light formula to improve production efficiency and yield at each stage; in terms of improving quality, nutrients can be controlled by means of nutrient regulation and light regulation. content and other health functional ingredients.
It is estimated that the current national demand for vegetable seedlings is 680 billion, while the production capacity of factory-based seedlings is less than 10%. The seedling industry has high environmental requirements, the production season is mostly winter and spring, the natural light is weak, and artificial light is required. The output of plant lighting is relatively high, and the acceptance of investment is high; ) needs to be grafted. Under high humidity conditions, specific spectral supplementary light can promote the healing of grafted seedlings. LED has unique advantages. The supplementary light for greenhouse vegetable planting can make up for the lack of natural light, improve the photosynthetic efficiency of plants, promote flowering and fruiting, increase yield, and improve product quality. LED plant lighting has broad application prospects in vegetable seedlings and greenhouse production.
3. Intelligent
Plant lighting has a strong demand for real-time control of light quality and light quantity. With the improvement of intelligent control technology and the application of the Internet of Things, a variety of monochromatic spectrum plus intelligent control systems can realize time control, light control, and according to the growth state of plants. The timely adjustment of light quality and light output is bound to become the main trend of future development of plant lighting technology.
