Government grant for low-carbon food production

Added on 19 December 2023

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Government grant for low-carbon food production

Photo: IGS

A consortium of four British companies, comprising UK Urban AgriTech (UKUAT), Intelligent Growth Solutions Ltd, RheEnergise, and James Hutton Institute, has received a grant from the UK Government to advance the development of low-carbon and low-cost food production.

Specifically, the V-FAST consortium’s £488K project will explore how co-locating energy storage (RheEnergise’s HD Hydro Energy Storage system) with vertical farms can support a low-emission route to growing protein-rich crops in a controlled environment. The grant from Innovate UK/BBSRC is £370,000, with the project partners providing the remaining £118,000.

“The V-FAST project is a great opportunity to establish routes to sustainability for vertical farming. The Advanced Plant Growth Centre, hosted at the James Hutton Institute, has reported previously on the significant sustainability of produce produced in vertical farms when linked to renewable energy, and in V-FAST, we will be able to mine this further by looking at production under existing and future blended energy sources,” shares Professor Derek Stewart, Director of the Advanced Plant Growth Centre at The James Hutton Institute.

Co-locating vertical farms with renewables
Last year, V-FAST – Vertical Farming And Storage Technologies – started investigating sites in Scotland’s Central Belt for the location of Scotland’s next generation of hectare+ scale vertical farms, powered by 100% renewables and using RheEnergise’s High-Density Hydro energy storage system. These farms would provide locally produced fresh foods (salads and fruits) to over 60% of the Scottish population and help meet the Scottish Government’s ambitions to produce more homegrown fruit and vegetables. These site investigations in Scotland continue.