Fluence deploys cannabis lights at vertical farm and others in Israel

Not to be outdone in cannabis reseller relations by its related horticultural lighting operation at Signify, Fluence has disclosed that with a close partner, it has deployed systems at three distinctly different cannabis growers in Israel, including a vertical farm.

Austin, Texas–based Fluence Bioengineering and Yanuv, Israel–based reseller REMY have switched on Fluence’s cannabis grow lights at Green Fields in Megadim, at Springs Valley Cannabis in Sdei Trumot, and at Trichome in Qiryat Gat.

According to Fluence, all three growers focus on medical cannabis but each taps different environments.

Green Fields grows in a 42,000m² greenhouse — believed to be Israel’s largest for cannabis — mixing sunlight and Fluence LED luminaires. It recently completed a “phase one” installation of Fluence’s VYPR luminaires covering 10,000m2, according to its website.

“We were looking for yearly consistency in yield and chemical profile,” said Green Fields’ business development advocate Lior Pisso Saada.

Springs Valley, a three-year-old startup, grows full-size plants indoors without sunlight. Trichome grows smaller cannabis plants in stacked vertical shelving using Fluence’s SPYDR series in an urban environment.

“The results are already exceeding our initial expectations,” said Trichome founder and CEO Tony Levi. “It shows the potential for indoor growth in urban centers. The facility utilizes every square meter of the building for efficiency and uniformity.”

The three installations grew out of a collaboration between Fluence and REMY, a reseller that helps growers plan and install lighting schemes and recipes for different crops and provides followup service. It became a Fluence reseller in 2020, when Fluence was still part of ams Osram, which completed its sale of the company to Signify in early May after agreeing to the transaction last December.

“Israel is a technological 'playground' for the cannabis market, which makes it easy to examine and adopt advanced technologies quickly,” said Timo Bongartz, general manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Fluence. “With the early-adapter frame of mind that the Israeli industry practices, Fluence has managed to deliver expert horticulture knowledge and, together with REMY, cooperate with leading innovative growers to advance their operations.”

The collaboration echoes a cannabis research alliance that Signify’s Horticulture LED Solutions (Horti) division formed with reseller Light4Food and with Plagron Professional, a horticultural substrate, fertilizer, and nutrient outfit. Light4Food is based in Horst and Plagron in Weert, Holland.

The two Signify entities both sell globally. Signify has said that Fluence has more of North American focus and Horti more of a European one.

Competition between the two seems inevitable.

MARK HALPER  is a contributing editor for LEDs Magazine, and an energy, technology, and business journalist ([email protected]).

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