The Ontario ministry of energy has announced a series of conservation and demand management programs to alleviate current pressure on the electrical grid and to plan for the future. One specific program is targeted at southwestern Ontario greenhouses, incentivizing growers to install LED lighting, non-lighting measures or behind-the-meter distributed energy resources (DER), such as combined solar generation and battery storage.

Joe Sbrocchi, general manager of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers (OGVG)  says the funding shows that the government recognizes that greenhouses are one type of "farming of the future."

LEDs use less energy, costing less to operate. They offer flexibility in how they programmed to follow specific lighting recipes for the crops they illuminate.

Traditional greenhouse use high-pressure sodium (HPS) lights. They require more electricity to operate, though they do also help keep the greenhouses warm.

The program is expected to be available in the spring of 2023.

Source:  Ontario Ministry of Energy October 4, 2022 news release