5 Reasons to Start Your Own Greenhouse Farm

Written by: Sarah Jordan and Christian Kanlian

March 24, 2023

When starting a farm, research is key to ensuring you make the right decisions upfront to avoid headaches later. There are many choices to be made, but one of the most important is which type of farm to start. Each farm model comes with its own set of pros and cons, especially concerning startup costs, operation costs, and climate control. On Agritecture Designer, you can compare CapEx, OpEx, and yields from vertical farms, greenhouses, or container farms to discover which would be best for your idea and local market. Agritecture’s consulting team is a big fan of greenhouses, which have a long history of commercial and private success. For many reasons, a greenhouse can be a great way to break into the market.

Here are 5 reasons why you might want to start a greenhouse farm:

1. Lower CapEx than other CEA facilities

Greenhouses are a great way to break into the industry because the CapEx is often lower than that needed to start a vertical or container farm. In one comparison conducted by iFarm, the CapEx cost of a high-tech greenhouse was around $250-350 per square meter, whereas a vertical farm costs around $2,200 to $2,600 per square meter. These figures show that each farm type’s CapEx is drastically different, meaning that greenhouses are a more accessible option to those with less capital to spend upfront. They are also a great option for temperate, humid climates, where evaporative cooling can efficiently meet the climate control needs of the farm.

Additionally, greenhouses offer much more flexibility in terms of materials used. Since greenhouse farmers only need land rather than a building or structure, that cost is automatically cheaper than a container farm or a vertical farm. Many retailers offer greenhouse cultivation supplies, and the cost of these varies widely, but on the whole, the building materials make for a cheaper build than a container or vertical farm.

2. Lower OpEx

Importantly, greenhouses take advantage of the most powerful energy source we’ve yet discovered, the sun, and even better, it’s free. This critical distinction is largely responsible for GH’s significant energy savings due to lower lighting and heating bills than comparable vertical or container farms.

According to Michigan State University’s Floriculture and Greenhouse Crop Production extension program, the two biggest costs in greenhouse farming are labor and energy. The 2021 Global Controlled Environment Agriculture Census, conducted by Agritecture and WayBeyond, showed that the average energy use for a vertical farm is 38.8 kWh per kilo of produce, whereas the energy use for the same unit of produce in a greenhouse is 5.4 kWh. With about seven times less energy consumption, greenhouse farming will have a significant impact on lowering operating costs over time if chosen instead of a vertical farm.

3. Greater resilience with fewer points of failure

Greenhouse farms, by virtue of their more mature technology choices, typically have fewer points of failure and are more resilient. Power outages can be catastrophic to vertical farms, and to some types of greenhouses as well, but choosing irrigation systems with greater redundancy, such as Deep Water Culture, can significantly mitigate crop damage caused by intermittent power. 

Vertical farms, often in an effort to attract investor funding, may try to implement unproven or over-engineered technological systems like machine vision, machine learning, or novel irrigation methods (like aeroponics). While theoretically beneficial, until these systems reach commercial maturity, they introduce a level of risk to a farm that operators may not be prepared for. These systems are also often touted as replacing or greatly reducing the number of skilled growers needed on the farm, which we have rarely seen happen successfully. In practice, having a skilled horticulturist operating established, proven technology systems is one of the most important factors to your farm's success.

4. Lower CO2 footprint

One of the main drawbacks of vertical and container farming is the large energy costs associated with keeping the farm up and running. While greenhouse cultivation can still involve supplemental lighting and HVAC control, it is often to a much lesser degree than in other farms, which means it usually has a lower CO2 footprint as well. 

In a research paper written by Tess Blom, Andy Jenkins, Riccardo Pulselli, and Andy van Dobbelsteen, the “carbon footprint of the vertical farm was 5.6–16.7 times greater than that of the conventional farming methods,” which in this case, were greenhouse and field cultivation. Through working with sustainability-minded investors, Agritecture’s consultants have conducted similar analyses that find 2-5x greater carbon footprint for vertical farms when compared to greenhouses. While vertical farming has long-term potential, especially for extreme climates, it is a long way from being the least carbon-intensive option among food production methods, making greenhouse farming a good alternative.

5. Easier to integrate and optimize renewable energy sources

With greenhouses, renewable energy can easily be integrated into the farming system. There are various options to explore depending on the availability of certain natural resources in the region. Some of these options include solar, geothermal, biomass, and wind. All of these options are great alternatives to lower a farm’s carbon footprint, but they also offer stability when fossil fuel prices are turbulent, as has been the case during the conflict in Ukraine.

Solar energy is a good alternative to fossil fuels for greenhouse operators. It offers the ability to produce energy either connected to the grid or off the grid, which is a great advantage over fossil fuels. Geothermal energy is a great option for heating farms, especially in conjunction with natural gas or other more easily inducible forms of heat. It can be useful in regions where solar energy is less reliable as a power source. In North Carolina, Associate Professor of Appalachian State University’s Department of Sustainable Technology and the Built Environment, Ok-Youn Yu “demonstrated that renewable energy and biomass-based greenhouse heating systems can cut farmer’s energy bills in half when integrated with a root zone heating system.” If your farm will be located near a coastal area, wind energy can be an attractive option.

With lower costs to get started and operate alongside the ability to easily integrate renewable energy sources, greenhouses are a great option for smaller-scale farmers looking to get their business off the ground with less capital than is needed for a vertical farm. Greenhouse farming is a viable option for farmers looking to extend their marketable season, optimize their crop production, and also mitigate their environmental impact. Implementing greenhouse farming can be a wise investment for farmers, providing a more sustainable and efficient approach to agriculture that can help ensure long-term success and profitability.