LRC horticultural lighting research questions the performance of LED luminaires in greenhouses

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has published a new report on horticultural lighting that questions the energy efficiency of LED-based fixtures relative to legacy high-pressure sodium (HPS) and metal-halide (MH) fixtures. When compared in a scenario with the same photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) uniformly delivered to the plant canopy in a greenhouse supplemental-lighting application, the legacy fixtures generally bested solid-state lighting (SSL) alternatives in total energy usage and in some cases also delivered lower lifecycle cost.