SmartGRO Gets Nearly C$895,000 to Test Pulsed LED System for Indoor Farms

Agriculture and Agri Food Canada has awarded SmartGRO Bioengineering up to 894,673 Canadian dollars to develop and test an energy efficient lighting system for indoor agriculture. The funding was announced September 8 under the Agricultural Clean Technology Program’s Research and Innovation Stream.

SmartGRO’s approach combines very fast pulsing LED lights with plant sensors and artificial intelligence. The sensors collect data including plant temperature, health and growth, then the control system adjusts lighting to match crop needs. Unlike conventional fixtures that remain continuously illuminated, the lights cycle rapidly while plants use the delivered energy for photosynthesis.

Government information says controlled tests produced the same harvest weight as conventional LED lighting while using up to 80 percent less electricity. That result is promising, but it comes from controlled testing. The new project is intended to determine whether the performance can be reproduced at commercial scale.

The main demonstration will take place at Hydragreens Produce in Calgary. Testing in an operating indoor farm should expose the system to production variables that are difficult to reproduce in a laboratory, including crop scheduling, facility climate, equipment integration and the need for consistent output over repeated cycles.

Hydragreens is investing 916,197 Canadian dollars toward the project and will host the commercial trials. The partnership is focused on demonstration, validation and potential adoption by large customers, which makes the grower’s operating data an important part of the technology’s path toward market.

SmartGRO is also working with the University of Windsor, Ontario’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness, Lambton College, H and A Mastronardi Farms and Freeman Herbs. That group gives the project access to research expertise and multiple commercial production environments.

Electricity is a central cost constraint for vertical farms and other controlled environment systems because crops depend on artificial light, climate control and water circulation. A lighting platform that reduces power demand without reducing harvest weight could improve unit economics, but reliability, maintenance costs, crop specific results and capital expense will all matter in a commercial decision.

The investment sits alongside Canada’s wider commitment of 750 million Canadian dollars for controlled environment agriculture under its National Food Security Strategy. SmartGRO now has to turn a controlled test result into independently measured commercial performance. The most useful evidence will be energy use per kilogram of marketable crop across full production cycles.