LED agricultural grow light module market to reach US$1.8 billion by 2021, says report Alex Wolfgram, DIGITIMES, Taipei [Friday 20 March 2015]
The LED agricultural grow light module market, which reached US$395 million in value during 2014, is forecast to reach US$1.8 billion by 2021 as green house and plant factory growers find LED grow lights improve agriculture, according to findings from RnR Market Research.
LED grow lights enable growers to automate and control growing and permits people to grow food in warehouses and in the home, dedicating unused space in a manner that is efficient for producing food.
The lights help take the cost of transportation out of the food chain, the report said, adding the ability to make fresh, sanitary food available presents a major shift in how people live and achieve quality of life. Grow lights increase the density of food production by a factor of ten, the firm claimed.
In some places like Japan, where there is a deficiency in the environment, plant factories will continue to proliferate.
According to Susan Eustis, the lead author of the team that created the study, "Solid state electronics bring the same advantages to agriculture as brought to all other industry segments they touche. Growers are finding that they can achieve a rapid return on investment from substantially decreasing the energy costs associated with using grow lights, lengthening the growing season, eliminating chemical contaminants in the food supply, and significantly decreasing transportation costs for food production."
As more people become more health conscious and try to avoid the deleterious effects of pesticides in their food, grow lights are anticipated to find more and larger markets among greenhouse operators. Large, warehouse-size plant factories are expected to concentrate on raising seedlings, the firm noted.
