Customer Stories
Netled’s collaboration with Finnish restaurateur
Sami Lappalainen, a Finnish restaurateur, is using herbs and lettuces grown in Vera® demo facility in Pirkkala. Sami leads a Gastropub family in Tampere, which includes 12 small, unique restaurants and a microbrewery.
Sami speaks for the sustainable and local production of food, and Netled’s vertical farming solutions fit in his philosophy well: “We need to favour urban agriculture in one way or another, because field-based farming is now a global problem. Around 40 % of the used surface area on our planet is fields, mainly monoculture, which are no longer part of the natural world. I think that farming should be moved to places, which people are already using for other purposes.”
Lappalainen sees the collaboration with Netled in a very positive light: “The products grown in Netled's units are longer-lasting, of higher quality and more substantial than similar, conventional alternatives. For us, the key issue is quality and long shelf-life of the product, because waste levels tend to be very high in these kinds of herbs and lettuces. We have been highly satisfied with Netled's service. It’s clearly of benefit to us, and we have a ringside view of the new product’s development.”
Watch chefs’ thoughts on Vera®-farmed produce and vertical farming:
Watch BBC news coverage of Astwood’s current operations in Redditch, UK:
Partnership with Astwood Infrastructure
Netled is collaborating with British technology company Astwood Infrastructure to build four industrial scale vertical farms predominantly in UK over the next three years. The farms will also provide a framework for serving global customers.
Greenfield projects require relatively massive design work for infrastructure. Together the companies have a possibility to serve global market with an all-inclusive project offering.
A pilot facility, the first under the framework, is already built and is in continuous use in Redditch, UK. In the future, focus will be in industrial scale vertical farming. The production volumes are planned to be millions of heads of lettuces and herbs annually.
“We are incredibly excited about our new agreement with Netled Oy and the opportunity we now have in building and scaling a UK wide and potentially global vertical farm operation. Our pilot farm has shown some incredibly exciting results and we feel optimistic that we will be able to replicate this success at scale” comments Mike Capewell, the CEO of Astwood Infrastructure.
The most northern vertical farm in Finland utilizes Netled’s technology
Netled has delivered LED lighting and climate control technology for the Seppälä vertical farm in Kainuu vocational school – the most northern vertical farm in the world, situated in Kajaani, Finland. The whole project has been delivered by Finnish operators, and mainly by using domestic technology. The vertical farm has been built by Kainuu vocational school, and Robbes Lilla Trädgård Ab has acted as the general contractor in the project.
In addition of being the most northern vertical farm, Seppälä vertical is also the most vastest vertical project for teaching and research purposes in the world. “The Seppälä vertical enables great facilities to educate versatile growers and do important research in the field. This will also be an immense help for the companies developing vertical farming technology”, comments Netleds’s CEO Niko Kivioja.
The Seppälä vertical farm serves as a good example on the benefits of vertical farming: the location even in the northern parts of the world doesn’t influence the farming process.
The first test batch to be grown in Kajaani will include micro-sized seedlings of strawberries. Recipes for growing will be created along the project. The overall incentive is to better understand the plant and also the whole growing process. In the future, Seppälä vertical farm is aiming to be completely carbon neutral production method and run on solar power.
Robbes Lilla Trädgård
I´ve been looking for ways to increase the efficiency of my growing process. These Finnish technologies are so intelligent and advanced, that other multilayer techniques I´ve seen are left far behind. The brilliance of this concept lies in full control of heat energy and recovery. With this technology, in addition to space efficient enhancement of growing surface, I´m also saving in heating expenses of my traditional greenhouse area.
– Robert Jordas, owner of Robbes Lilla Trädgård
Project listing
2020 Vertical farm to Vertigo, Poland
2020 Instore growing cabinet project supermarket, Finland
2020 Instore vertical farm to ICA Fokus, Sweden with Swegreen
2020 LED greenhouse lighting project leafy greens, Sweden
2020 LED greenhouse lighting project Åland, Finland
2020 Vertical farming technology Germany
2020 Hybrid lighting project lettuce production, Finland
2019 Vertical farming technology delivery to Kajaani, Finland
2019 Hybrid lighting project Oksasen puutarha, Finland
2019 Vertical Farming technology to UAE
2019 Hybrid lighting project cucumber Finland
2018 Vertical Farm to UK
2018 Virolan puutarha Lettuce production line LED lighting
2018 Illinois US Tomato Lighting project
2018 Hällnäs Trädgård SE Herb Lighting project
2018 Finland Lettuce Colorization project
2018 LUKE - Institute of Natural Resources
2018 Taimitapio Seedling Tree interference lighting project
2018 Finland Indoor lighting for propagation
2017 Alanteen Puutarha Strawberry Lighting project
2017 Finland Organic herb Lighting project
2017 Bulgaria Full LED lighting project
2017 Wääksy Garden Seedlings Hybrid lighting
2017 Kotipelto Garden Microgreens LED lighting
2017 Turakkala Garden Herbs Lighting project
2016 Härkälän Puutarha Lettuce Colorization project
2016 Finland Lettuce Production lighting and electrical infrastructure
2016 Kulmala Garden Organic basil Hybrid lighting
2016 Härkälä nursery Red salad varieties Overhead™ Hybrid luminaires for colorization
2015 Robbes Lilla Trädgård Herb LED lighting project
2014 Keuda Salads and pot plants Full LED lighting project
2014 Viherkaste Seedlings Hybrid lighting
2014 Farmifarm Oy Herb and lettuce Seedling lighting
2014 Tamsin Vihannes Oy Lettuce LED lighting project
2014 Merivuoren Puutarha Oy Cucumber Interlighting project
2014 Deweja NL Lettuce Lighting project
2014 Leythorne Nurseries UK Lettuce Lighting project
2014 KEUDA Tomato and flower Greenhouse lighting and electrical infrastructure
2014 Lindroth Nursery Herb Seedling lighting project
2014 Seinäjoen Puutarha Cucumber Lighting project
2013 Novia Yrkeshögskolan Tomato Interlighting research
2013 Japan Tomato Top lighting research
2013 Vitacress UK Coriander Lighting project
2012 Esa Tamsi Oy Hybrid lighting project
