SPRHOUT · SPRHOUT (Solar PoweRed Horticultural Off-grid UniT) – the first economically viable off-grid energy system to power horticultural projects, boosting the transition towards sustainable food provision

There will be 2.5 billion more people living on Earth by 2050, dramatically pushing the need for agriculture to both increase food production and at the same time reduce resource-consumption in order to ensure a sustainable future for humanity. Greenhouse-based horticulture could highly contribute to this goal, thanks to its unparalleled benefits in terms of reduced use of water and higher quality and quantity of product with respect to traditional agriculture. Nonetheless, greenhouse facilities need both huge amount of electricity and gas to be operated, accounting for energy consumption of about 3.4 MTOE per year only in Europe, which pushed European policy-makers to promote renewable-based energy solutions for the horticulture sector among the priorities.SOLHO is a high-tech company incubated at Yes!Delft which developed an innovative and fully off-grid energy system called SPRHOUT, that uses solar energy to fulfil the energy needs of a greenhouse facility.SOLHO’s core innovation is a proprietary thermal energy storage system which allows round the clock operation of all other units, enabling 24/7 energy supply during the night or whenever the sun is not available. We plan to market our SPRHOUT units by 2021 in Europe, Africa and Middle East through a B2B approach, selling the SPRHOUT system to large global greenhouse manufacturers, which will act as EPC contractors. Three global leaders of advanced horticultural projects have already expressed their interest in our solution. The Phase 1 project will be a launch pad for the future commercialization of the system, enabling SOLHO to validate the SPRHOUT performances and the market opportunity in key areas, assess the process’ economic performance indicators, and refine the business plan to attract the future investment needed for scaling up the system production.