One Way Controlled Environment Ag Tech Is Rising to the Challenge of Extreme Heat
When growing food in some of the world’s most challenging climates, CEA holds the potential to change not only agriculture, but also life itself. For areas like the Middle East, U.S. Southwest, Northern Africa and others, one obstacle to fresh, local food production is eminently clear: extreme heat and its impact on every aspect of growing.
Ryan Lefers
Ryan Lefers is CEO and co-founder of iyris, a company dedicated to innovative, environmentally friendly CEA technologies that address issues such as climate-related food security. Originally launched in Saudi Arabia under the RedSea name, the company’s initial focus was water-related projects involving saltwater resources for cooling or making plants more salt- and heat-tolerant. Now rebranded as iyris, the company concentrates on technologies to manage extreme heat.
Inspired by the extreme Saudi environment, Lefers explained that the company’s work with freshwater scarcity and water security led to an epiphany of sorts. The team recognized that the challenges associated with saltwater and salty soils are largely heat induced, and the shift to heat-conquering technologies began.
Heat-Blocking Innovation
The primary innovation driving iyris today revolves around a first-of-its-kind greenhouse roof technology that started as a transparent photovoltaic cell. The cell could absorb heat from the sun, let the light through, and create electricity in the process.
When the technology’s developers approached Lefers about possible CEA applications, he was impressed. But more than the energy production, he was intrigued by the product’s ability to exclude heat — and indirectly reduce the massive energy spent trying to keep greenhouses cool in extreme environments.
He recalled telling them, “The fact that you can create electricity from this is great, but 90 to 95% of the battle is keeping that heat out.” The development of heat-blocking, light-admitting greenhouse covers led to the launch of iyris.
SecondSky technology makes soft fruits viable crops in extreme environments.
Photo courtesy of iyris
Tuning Out the Heat
As the iyris team refined its product and approach, it developed an additive inserted into the manufacturing process for the various covers offered in the iyris Second Sky line.
“All you do is replace your roof, and boom! You have this new cover that actually selectively filters solar radiation in such a way that it blocks a percentage of the heat from coming into your greenhouse, but it maximizes the light transmission for photosynthesis,” Lefers explained.
The technology can be used with different covers, from films to polycarbonate hardcovers.
“We can also tune the amount of heat that you want to block,” Lefers said. “In low, we typically think of blocking somewhere around 40 to 50% of the heat. Medium would be somewhere like 50 to 65%, and then high would be like 65 to 80% of the heat that we’re actually blocking from coming into the system.”
SecondSky coverings provide innovative alternatives to traditional plastics.
Photo courtesy of iyris
Peak Heat Options
In the past, growers in extreme heat environments had few choices beyond moving to a more hospitable climate.
“If you’re stuck in your location, the tradeoff is that you can put on shade or you can put on whitewash, but you’re going to lose some light. So, farmers have to balance,” Lefers said, stressing that peak heat pressures affect growers globally, from Mexico to the U.K. to Dubai.
What follows in most cases is a balancing act between light needed for photosynthesis and the heat that comes with light.
“It’s not even like maximizing production as much as it is like trading off production just for keeping the crop alive,” Lefers added.
With iyris technology, growers can maximize their light and still keep out the heat.
As the company’s focus shifted to heat from salinity-related technologies, it’s now circled back a bit. Its original work with plant genetics revealed traits for salinity tolerance aligned with heat and drought tolerance as well as general resilience. That led to the development of several resilient tomato rootstock varieties for grafted tomatoes.
Lefers shared that the rootstocks’ performance in global field trials in harsh climates has been positive and their introduction is drawing near.
“We’re in the final stages of plant variety rights protection, so they’ll be coming to market very soon — later this year, most likely — for wider distribution,” he said.
This article is part of our inaugural edition of CEAg World Insights. Click here to view the entire interactive report.