Lighting efficiency in plant production under artificial lighting and plant growth modeling for evaluating the lighting efficiency

Abstract

As it is critical that plant growers improve the efficiency of their lighting when it uses artificial lighting, the lighting efficiency should be evaluated properly. One possible way to evaluate the lighting efficiency is to compare the amount of biomass produced per unit of energy used to irradiate the plants. A simpler index uses the fraction of the light energy or photons received by plants. Lighting efficiency can also be evaluated from the viewpoint of how much the irradiance/ photon flux density on leaf surfaces can be improved. It is useful to obtain information of canopy structure or leaf spatial distribution in addition to determining plant mass (dry weight, fresh weight, or LAI) increments for evaluating the lighting efficiency. Modeling leaf growth and development can be used for this purpose.