A few weeks ago at the World Cities Summit in Singapore an innovation in the world of hydroponics was presented. Apparently, a company called Sky Greens demonstrated a vertical farm that grows “tropical vegetables”.
The following is from a media release for the summit:
World’s first low carbon hydraulic water-driven commercial urban vertical farm for tropical vegetables will be showcased at World Cities Summit 2012.
Sky Greens Pte Ltd is the creator and builder of the world’s first low carbon hydraulic waterdriven commercial urban vertical farm. This innovative green urban solution achieves enhanced sustainable production of safe, fresh and delicious tropical vegetables with minimal land, water and energy resources.
Ensuring food supply resilience is important to land-scarce countries such as Singapore. Mr Jack Ng, the founder, has shown that it is possible through innovative green solutions for highrise vertical vegetable farming in urban cities, to achieve significant higher yields per unit area of land.
He started building his prototype in 2009. A Research Collaborative Agreement was signed with Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) in April 2010. The private-public sector collaboration resulted in the development of multi-layer troughs, in a rotating A-frame vertical structures (called “A-Go-Gro”), using green technologies. The world’s first vertical tropical-vegetable farm was test-bedded with AVA and successfully proven. This was publicized on 28 Jan 2011, and commercialized in 2012.
The Vertical Farming System
The vertical farming system is named A-Go-Gro (AGG). The AGG system consists of a tall aluminium frame with multiple tiers of growing troughs. The frame can be as high as 9 meter tall with 38 tiers of growing troughs, which can accommodate different growing media of soil or hydroponics. Sky Greens currently grows vegetables in plastic trays of soil placed inside the troughs. The troughs rotates around the aluminium frame to ensure that the plants obtain uniform sunlight, eliminating the need for artificial lighting. Rotation is powered by a unique patented low carbon hydraulic water-driven system that uses only 0.5 litres water to rotate the 1.7 ton vertical structure.
