Westland Energiegroep chief financial officer Alfred Besselink talks about the differences in the Dutch and American grower perspective on environmental control and other energy issues.

Q. What are the major differences between Dutch and American growers' view of environmental controls?

A. Dutch growers have to compete with their products on the world market because 80 percent is for export. That means Dutch growers recognize the need for environmental controls as a necessity to support a high-yield, low-cost production, whereas the American growers -- of course, not all of them -- are not convinced of the need for control systems to the same degree.

This very intensive way of production, resulting in high yield and quality per square meter, is caused by relatively high property prices, costs of labor and energy costs, but also by very strict regulations on environmental issues, such as runoff and use of pesticides. Intensive production means using techniques like shading, dosing of carbon dioxide, heating, using assimilation lights, etc., which can only be done effectively using computer systems.

I recently read that in U.S. greenhouses only 36 percent of the growers use environmental controls and that the number of automated systems currently owned by growers is down by about 10 percent compared with the last industry survey. In the Netherlands, every commercial greenhouse has a computer system.

Q. How much influence does the fact that Dutch growers specialize in monoculture vs. American growers, who produce an assortment of crops in the same greenhouse, have on the sophistication of the environmental control systems?

A. The monoculture principle would seem to simplify the control requirements. However, as pointed out before, the high yield and low cost requirements of Dutch growers actually increased the level of sophistication required. The American growers would -- at least in theory -- dictate more flexible control systems compared to the focused Dutch requirements.

Q. In Europe, Westland Energie has diversified from being just an energy company into products related to environmental control. Now that Westland has acquired QCOM, are there any plans to diversify into becoming an energy supplier to U.S. growers also?

A. We have no intention of becoming an energy supplier to U.S. growers. The trading and distribution of energy is a very complex business and requires not only high skills of the people involved, but also profound knowledge of local legislation, energy tariff structures and systems. Westland only supplies energy in the Netherlands.

In Europe, we have contacts with some of the biggest energy companies. The primary goal of these initiatives for Westland is not to go in the energy supply business but selling our products and systems through these companies to the local horticulture industry.

In the United State the situation is apparently different. Maybe in the near future U.S. energy companies may be interested in the products and systems Westland Energie has developed for the horticulture industry.

We already have energy management systems installed in North America. These so-called KeBuS systems control 1,500 acres of greenhouses. We monitor these installations from our office in Poeldijk.

All of the acquisitions we made in the past three years are strategic and support the long-term vision of Westland Energie. With the acquisition of QCOM we established a presence in the North American market. The future of QCOM will now be driven by the resources and horticulture knowledge of Westland such as climate control systems, energy load and management systems, fertigation, water purification and treatment, labor control systems, tracking-and-tracing systems.

Q. What are the biggest mistakes that growers make when they consider installing environmental-control equipment?

A. A grower does not know exactly what he needs in terms of automation relevant to the type of crop and his technical installations. In some cases, this causes an effect of overkill. Only a small part of the available functionality of the climate-control system is used. In other cases, too much saving on automation expenses causes problems with function, which is actually needed. In most of these cases, this means extra costs to get to the required level, more than doing it right the first time.

Furthermore, sometimes growers think that a climate-control system can solve all their problems, such as problems caused by bad heating and/or boiler installation. This is not the case, although some salesman may argue that it does. It is a great advantage if the supplier of the climate-control computer is involved in the layout and design of the greenhouse, as can be provided by QCOM in North America. An HVAC engineer should be used to design the heating and boiler installation. In this way you can achieve the best solutions.

Q. What are the biggest mistakes that growers make when they consider upgrading or retrofitting an existing system?

A. It is hard to say that they make big mistakes. One thing some of them do wrong is that they try to save on costs by not spending money on new wiring and/or measurement equipment. They forget that these things are the eyes and ears of the climate computer and thus the most important parts of an upgraded or retrofitted control system. Another thing is that they stick to the existing brand because they are familiar with their climate-control system. Growers need to do an evaluation of different systems based on benchmarking.

Q. In what parts of the greenhouse structure/glazing and in what work-related activities are growers usually the least energy efficient?

A. In general, greenhouse structures and installations are not adapted for environmental-control systems. In many cases the installations don't achieve optimal performance, because they did not make performance requirements in advance. In these cases, it is hard to control, for example, the yield of the heating system and the spread of temperatures in the greenhouse.

From a control point of view, a lot more can be achieved through better use of the functionality of the climate-control system and a better understanding of what the environmental requirements of the specific crops are.

Also, maintenance of the different technical parts of the greenhouse and the installation is an important issue. For example, regular maintenance of the pumps and valves and trimming of the vents.

Q. Do you think that the greenhouse structure, glazing and environmental-control companies work closely enough together that they are providing growers with the best options when it comes to energy efficiency?

A. At this moment, cooperation between these companies is not sufficient to achieve optimal energy efficiency. An example of this is the KeBuS concept that we developed. In this role as a supplier of an automation product, for the first time in the Dutch horticulture history we established binding conditions concerning the design and layout of the heating system. This has led to a totally new industry standard for heating systems with a warm water buffer -- the so-called "Open Buffer System."

Q. Where do you think the next biggest improvements will come in greenhouse environmental control?

A. The next biggest improvements will come in three areas:

1. Sensors that can measure the status and conditions of the plants.

2. The use of predictive models (greenhouse, crop growth, weather) as input for control.

3. Far more simplification of the user-interface of the control systems.

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© 2002 Branch-Smith Publishing