Plantagon, a Swedish food technology company, has published an office building called “Plant Building” and plans to build the first such magnificent indoor farm + office building in Linkoping, Sweden . Thanks to the farm's unique operating model, urban farmers who cultivated here do not need to pay any gross rent, because the heat generated by the farm is sufficient to pay off the amount.
Plantagon underground farms, like other indoor farms, plant plants in the building with LED lighting. But Plantagon is different in that the heat generated by the lighting in the original room is usually drained out of the room to prevent the plants from overheating, but Plantagon collects the heat directly and stores it in the building's thermal energy storage system, which can assist in the office building. People keep warm in the winter.
The method of collecting heat energy in this underground farm is to use the water pipes above the LED lights to save the heat energy in the water and then lead it to the heat pump system. This thermal energy storage system will allow the building to save 700,000 kilowatt-hours of energy each year, which is equivalent to saving 3 times the rent of the basement. In addition, the carbon dioxide produced in the office will also be discharged into the farm and the fresh oxygen produced by the farm's fruits and vegetables will be returned to the office workers.
Plantagon plans to open 10 underground farms in Stockholm in the next 3 years, starting with the building where the underground heat pump system has been installed. The preparatory team is also discussing with local energy companies about the possibility of selling the remaining heat to other buildings in the area.
In the city of Linkoping, which is a 2-hour drive from Stockholm, the company is planning to expand its underground farms into a 16-story “plant skyscraper”. In addition to the entire building will produce fruits and vegetables, there are 2/3 of the space will be rented for office use, in order to maintain operating stability. This plan is expected to be implemented in 2020 or 2021.
Plantagon's other similar indoor farm plan will also be implemented in Singapore. In this country that lacks land for cultivation, most of the crops are imported from neighboring countries, like Malaysia, and when Malaysia and other countries have fewer and more irrigable lands and more and more people, Singapore is starting to be able to Plantagon urban farms growing food are interested. Similarly, in some cities in China where it is difficult to obtain sufficient food, they also started to negotiate with Plantagon.