In a first for North America, GE technology is now being used at a commercial greenhouse to generate more reliable onsite power and heat — and to reduce emissions. The GE-designed “cogeneration” power plant — which increases efficiency by combining heat and power generation — had its grand opening today at Great Northern Hydroponics’ sprawling, 55-acre tomato greenhouse complex in Kingsville, Ontario, about 30 miles east of Detroit. The power plant, which uses four of GE’s Jenbacher engines, also treats the engines’ exhaust by recycling CO2 and applying it as a special fertilizer to enhance greenhouse crop production.
Feeling hot, hot, hot! The greenhouse shown here in the Netherlands is also using GE’s technology. Electricity from the engines is used to light the greenhouse and the excess is sold to the public grid.
Surplus power from the greenhouse power plant is being sold to the local grid under a 20-year contract with the Ontario Power Authority. The plant supplies enough electricity to Ontario’s transmission grid to power 12,000 - 15,000 Canadian homes annually.
The special CO2 fertilization-cogeneration system was developed by GE Energy’s Jenbacher gas engine business, which operates a global horticultural applications center of excellence in The Netherlands.
Because cogeneration plants are inherently more energy efficient than the use of separate systems to create electrical and thermal power, less fuel is consumed to produce the same amount of power.
* Read the announcement
* Learn about waste-heat recovery
* Learn more about ecomagination
* Read about GE's biogas technology
* Learn more about Jenbachers
* Watch a Jenbacher video
* Read about landfill gas technology
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