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Cannabis prohibition fueled a culture of underground production in the past, and solar power helped growers grow it in remote, off-grid locations. Now, with the emergence of a global commercial cannabis market, solar power has an even bigger role to play. By BLAKE MATICH
Solar energy and cannabis cultivation are old bedfellows. Photovoltaics pioneer John Schaeffer has even credited solar power with facilitating the cannabis industry in Northern California, which in turn supported the fledgling photovoltaic industry. As the legalization of medical and recreational cannabis accelerates, solar power continues to play a key role.
Among the weeds
Cannabis cultivation can be done outdoors, indoors or in greenhouses. Although outdoor cultivation has worked for millennia, the growth of the sector and the increased demand for higher quality products - in addition to the narrow profit margins - have led growers to opt indoors, where ideal environments can be reproduced. Growing indoors allows you to control environmental factors and flowering periods. And what is more important, it allows to obtain constant harvests throughout the year.
However, the high-powered lights and heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning equipment required to control temperature and humidity carry a massive carbon footprint. A 2022 report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated that climate control measures account for more than 80% of the carbon footprint of indoor cannabis production.
The UNODC estimated that the carbon footprint is between 16 and 100 times greater than that of outdoor cultivation. Indoor “factory farming” is incompatible with environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) standards, says Evan Mills, a director at engineering consultancy Energy Associates and a former scientist at the US Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Mills exposed the problem in an article published in "Energy Policy" in 2012, the year Colorado and Washington states legalized cannabis and caused a ripple effect elsewhere. Even then, he calculated that indoor growing accounted for 1% of total electricity consumption in the US, with a carbon footprint equivalent to that of three million cars.
The scientist estimated that 42% of growers were growing exclusively indoors in 2020, often in multiple sprawling Walmart-scale factories with energy consumption comparable to data centers.
Unfortunately, installing large-scale solar on-site is not an easy solution. According to Mills recent research on a proposed indoor cannabis industrial park in Blythe, California, the amount of solar energy needed to achieve a net-zero power supply would span 570 hectares, far more land than would be necessary if cannabis were grown. outdoor.
While entirely valid, Mills research suggests a mismatch between indoor and outdoor grown cannabis. After all, anyone can make a big batch of moonshine in a bathtub, but its not that easy to produce a good single malt Scotch on a large scale. Indoor cannabis is a premium product and in a state like California where people can still easily access a black market that is at least twice the size of the regulated (and taxable) industry, commercial cannabis businesses they are incentivized to produce top quality produce that can only be grown in a climate controlled environment.
Large-scale outdoor cultivation is also fraught with risks. In October, or “Croptober”, as it is known (a neologism that unites crop = to harvest, and october = October), all cannabis grown outdoors in California is harvested. This single crop, if it has not been spoiled by environmental impacts such as forest fires, is only attractive to consumers for several months. If the harvest fails or people decide to consume cannabis in the other nine months of the year, they will resort to an indoor site or a greenhouse.
On the roof
Despite the alarming energy intensity of indoor crops, the huge space on the roofs of grow houses is an ideal solar platform.
California-based Canndescent has over 10,000 square feet of indoor grow space and produces nearly 17 tons of cannabis annually. In 2019, Canndescent installed a 282.5 kW solar system at its Desert Hot Springs facility.
Canndescents senior director of compliance, Andrew Mochulsky, tells pv magazine that the unforgiving Colorado desert sun and limited cloud cover make solar power a no-brainer. “Were in the heart of solar and wind country, so it made sense to go solar,” he says. "We also think its the right thing to do."
According to Mochulsky, growing indoors “is not trying to replace the sun, but rather to enhance it to create the harsh conditions of 12-hour sun at noon that are physically impossible outdoors. That is why you have to control the environment so that it is very thirsty for electricity.”
Canndescents solar power makes up between 25% and 35% of the companys electricity consumption, according to Mochulsky, depending on the time of year. “Its a great investment,” he adds. “And if we can get closer to a 1:1 ratio of carport space, it would have a substantial impact on our electricity costs.”
The inclusion of solar awnings and carports also provides a “quality of life benefit” for employees, Mochulsky says. "People have a nice shady place to sit."
Cash conundrum
Despite these advantages, only a small minority of North American indoor growers have gone solar.
“We are an exception,” says Mochulsky. "I cant say its the norm. Even here in Desert Hot Springs, were the only ones, and thats in stark contrast to the residential market, where every rooftop is solar powered.” Solar power makes a lot of sense, but it comes with an upfront cost.”
The director of Canndescent says that the narrow margins of cannabis are a factor to take into account. "Even with an ROI [return on investment, for solar] of five years, the market is soft, [costs] are low - except to operate - and liquidity is very tight."
While cannabis legalization in the US is advancing state by state, and President Joe Biden has directed his Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to review the inclusion of cannabis in federal law, the The market remains in legal limbo on a national scale, making it difficult to finance solar energy.
“There are a lot of headwinds for cannabis to embrace more solar energy,” says Mochulsky. “Access to many financial instruments is not available. We cannot get a standard loan from standard banks. We cannot, for example, mortgage a company. Cannabis companies do not have access to instruments such as bankruptcy. Federal illegality also means we dont have access to state and federal tax credit programs [such as the Cut Inflation Act ]. Investors are much more attentive to that degree of risk. After all, if a company cant restructure, it has to go bankrupt”.
But there are more examples of adoption of solar energy. In Canada, Freedom Cannabis turned to AltaPro Electric to design and install a 1.83 MW system on top of its Acheson, Alberta facility in 2020.
“It is the largest operational rooftop photovoltaic installation in Canada,” says David DeBruin, AltaPros CFO.
Freedom Cannabis is reaping the rewards of betting on solar energy. “Margins for indoor grow operations are very competitive and reducing one of the biggest operating expenses is a great way for Freedom Cannabis to be an industry leader,” DeBruin told pv magazine .
He says that other Canadian cannabis companies have inquired about solar, but as in the US, “customers seem to be held back by the difficulty of obtaining financing from lenders. Its a shame, because the cost of the loan is many times less than the savings, which makes any loan to install solar energy cash flow positive in the first year.”
Agrovoltaics and greenhouses
Cannabis is not limited to medicinal and recreational use. Hemp is one of the most versatile crops on the planet and it is making a strong comeback. Because hemp is not cultivated for its psychoactive component, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), its cultivation is far less intensive and meticulous than, for example, the high-THC flower grown by Canndescent in California. This makes hemp a potentially ideal crop for agribusiness.
In Melz (Germany), the developer of the agrovoltaic company SunFarming is currently testing the cultivation of hemp under solar panels. “All the plants, without exception, have grown well and developed excellently,” says Rafael Dulon, founder and managing director of Hanf Farm. Dulon says the panels also help with mold, a key concern for hemp growers. Mold becomes a problem in the fall, when temperatures cool and rainfall on the plants fails to dry. “The protection of the plants against the rain that the photovoltaic system provides works wonders,” says Dulon.
Another less energy intensive growing option is the greenhouse. However, the need for natural sunlight makes rooftop PV less attractive for these types of structures. Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is improving rapidly, but products like solar facades for greenhouses may be years away. Meanwhile, UbiGro, the agricultural arm of UbiQD, a US-based nanomaterials innovator, and Heliene, a manufacturer of solar panels, have signed an agreement to co-develop modules that optimize light and produce energy for agrovoltaic greenhouses.
UbiGros translucent greenhouse film has embedded photoluminescent particles that convert light to a preferred wavelength and can be easily combined with a solar module. UbiQD founder and CEO Hunter McDaniel tells pv magazine that if the panels only partially shade the greenhouse, the yield lost to shading can be offset by the spectrum enhancement provided by the film.
McDaniel adds that while indoor growers have so far managed to keep quiet about the extent of their energy intensity - unlike similarly energy-intensive emerging industries such as cryptocurrency mining - indoor growth is likely is reduced. Research from scientist Mills supports this idea, as the number of growers operating primarily indoors fell from 80% to 60% between 2016 and 2020. With outdoor growth too inconsistent and indoor growth shrinking, it is likely that the hybrid option of greenhouses will proliferate in the future.
Emerging Markets
The cannabis industrys trend toward solar adoption continues in US states where the plant has most recently been legalized, such as New York. Nate VerHague, director of market development for New York installer Solar Liberty, tells pv magazine that the new cannabis market "is going to have a lot of potential for solar."
VerHague notes that cannabis operations in New York state are just getting up and running. “There are going to be some extreme utility costs when it comes to electricity for these large operations,” she says. "Its an ideal customer for solar, as these facilities typically have plenty of roof space to utilize."
Although the nascent nature of the New York State market means that Solar Liberty has yet to install PV for a cannabis company, VerHague confirms that the installer is "in the process of listing with a few organizations," and that the market looks promising at starting this year.
National and regional governments around the world are preparing to follow in the footsteps of the US, among others, Canada, Mexico, Thailand and Uruguay. Germany could fully legalize cannabis in a few years, a fact that would not only make it the largest legal market in the world, but also, given its European centrality, the worlds “wettest” domino, since that her neighbors would be expected to follow her. Cannabis is becoming big business, and given its energy needs, it could be for solar power as well. |
