Lydney, UK: Jones Food Company, which runs the world’s largest vertical farm, has installed Carrier AquaSnap air-cooled scroll chillers to provide cooling and heating. The vertical farm, the size of seventy tennis courts, has 148,000sq feet of growing space for stacking crops 15 layers high, and is expected to supply 1,000 tonnes of fresh produce a year to UK supermarkets.
Contractor Brooktherm Refrigeration installed the heating and cooling system using its control system. “One of the key challenges was the requirement to achieve four different temperature and humidity set points. With the support of Carrier, we achieved them all,” said Ben Doherty, projects coordinator, Brooktherm Refrigeration.
Carrier AquaSnap 30RBP air-cooled scroll chillers with refrigerant R-32, operate from 0oC to 48oC, and come with variable-speed pumps to reduce pumping energy consumption by up to two-thirds. The chillers have a heat recovery system that enables waste heat to be captured. The cultivation warehouse is served by two HVAC plants, each with two Carrier chillers, delivering a total of 2.2 megawatts of cooling and heating to the growing room.
“This exciting project is an efficient and environmentally-responsible way to produce food and Carrier was delighted to be part of such a pioneering, sustainable new approach to growing the nation’s food,” said Paul Hill, regional sales manager, Carrier UK. “The HVAC plant was fully commissioned summer of 2023, and by October the entire growing area was fully planted, allowing the operator to harvest a tonne in weight of basil and leafy greens every 19 days.”
“With our new facility, we further accelerate Britain’s position as a world-leader when it comes to vertical farming,” said James Lloyd-Jones, chief executive, Jones Food Company. “We already supply thousands of British retail stores with basil grown in our first facility in Lincolnshire, but our Lydney site is three times bigger and will allow us to supply a greater range to more stores.”
