Greenhouse Energy Resources

In an industry with declining profit margins, and with the surge in fuel prices, there is increasing need to grow greenhouse crops in an energy-efficient manner. The best approach is to attack this industry threat using a variety of strategies. In collaboration with horticulturists, agricultural economists, and agricultural engineers, we have developed this web site to provide summary information on production strategies and technologies that greenhouse growers can use to consume less energy and improve production efficiency.

We would like to thank the Michigan Floriculture Growers Council who received a grant from the USDA Rural Development Office to help subsidize the costs of developing this energy resource document. In addition, Project GREEEN has provided funding to researchers at Michigan State University to generate research-based information on how to optimize temperature and light to increase greenhouse cropping efficiency and thus reduce energy consumption.

The information on this website was compiled and organized by Matthew Blanchard (Ph.D. candidate) and Erik Runkle (associate professor), Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University. We are continually updating this website as new information becomes available.