A possibility of Open Zero Energy Plant Factory

The serious subject of agriculture of Japan is reduction and aging of farmer population. Moreover, the increase in an abandoned cultivated land and decline in a food self-sufficiency ratio are also problems. A plant factory may lead to these problem solving. However, the profitability is not securable in many plant factories. The cause is mainly in a large amount of initial investment and a lot of energy consumed. Then, “Open Zero Energy Plant Factory (OZEPf) system” which combined a photovoltaics panel with a low cost tracking mechanism and advanced hydroponics equipment is proposed. In this report, the basic composition of an experimental system is shown first. Next, the measurement results of photovoltaics and hydroponics data collected by the small sensors are shown. Based on these results, the optimum allocation of photovoltaics and agriculture are shown and the possibility of OZEPf is suggested.