Netled delivered and commissioned LED lighting and climate control technology to the Seppälä vertical farm in Kainuu Vocational School, the most northern vertical farm in the world, situated in Kajaani, Finland. The whole project was delivered by Finnish operators, and mainly using domestic technology. Seppälä vertical farm was built by Kainuu Vocational School, and Robbes Lilla Trädgård Ab acted as the general contractor in the project.
In addition to being the world’s most northern vertical farm, Seppälä vertical is also the largest vertical project for teaching and research purposes in the world. “The fantastic facilities at Seppälä vertical enable the education of versatile growers and important research in the field. This will also be an immense help for the companies developing vertical farming technology”, comments Niko Kivioja, CEO at Netled.
The Seppälä vertical farm serves as a great example of the benefits of vertical farming: even at over 64 degrees north, the location doesn’t influence the vertical farming process.
During the first year of operations, different types of salad and herbs have been grown, as well as two different batches of strawberry seedlings. Different recipes for growing have also been created during the first year.
The overall incentive of the project is to better understand the plants and the entire growing process. In the future, Seppälä vertical farm aims to have a completely carbon-neutral production method and run on solar power.
Kari Komulainen, Head Grower at Peuraniemi Nursery, has been extremely satisfied with the results of the vertical farm so far. “The two batches of strawberry seedlings we have grown so far have proven without doubt the efficiency and profitability of producing seedlings vertically” Kari explains.
