Mirai Co. partnered with GE Japan to transform a former Sony Corporation semiconductor factory into the world’s largest LED indoor farm. The farm is already producing and shipping out a minimum of 10,000 heads of lettuce per day. Spanning 25,000-square-feet, it’s almost half the size of a football field, and comes equipped with 17,500 LED lights spread over 18 cultivation racks reaching 15 levels high. The LEDs were specially designed for the project by GE, and emit light at wavelengths for optimal plant growth, enabling Japanese plant physiologist Shigeharu Shimamura, CEO of Mirai Co., to control the night-and-day cycle and accelerate production. Continue reading for another video and more information.
Controlling temperature, humidity and irrigation, enables the farm to cut its water usage to just 1% of the amount needed by traditional outdoor farming. Wasted produce is also reduced from 50% down to a mere 10% of the crop, meaning a 100-fold increase in productivity per square foot. “What we need to do is not just setting up more days and nights. We want to achieve the best combination of photosynthesis during the day and breathing at night by controlling the lighting and the environment. I knew how to grow good vegetables biologically and I wanted to integrate that knowledge with hardware to make things happen,” said Shimamura.
