The cost of growing
Vertical farming’s biggest limitation is energy consumption. Considerable energy is required to power a closed, indoor greenhouse facility’s artificial lighting, heating and cooling, and hydroponic or aeroponic growing systems. The amount of energy required per unit of product is an important factor for ensuring not only that the farm is sustainable, but that it is economically viable. Recently, more and more studies have focused on pairing solar panels and wind turbines with greenhouses to provide self-generated renewable electricity on-site.
But the single technology that will be key to making vertical farms possible is lighting. New LED light technology is the key that makes it possible to build vertically integrated farms. This kind of artificial light has an extremely high photoelectric conversion efficiency, consuming only one eighth the power of incandescent lamp, half of the power of fluorescent lamp, and using a lower supply voltage (6-24V) that makes it safer to work with and reduces transmission losses.