Clarkson group to build experimental greenhouse

POTSDAM — A group of Clarkson University students is trying to prove that the north country is not too cold and dark for greenhouses to work.

To do it, the students are building one next to Cheel Arena this fall in a pilot project. The group expects to break ground in a matter of days and set about playing with heat and light settings to prove that people here can grow vegetables in the winter.

"If you think of a traditional greenhouse, it's glass all over, and that's why greenhouses don't do well up here," said Susan E. Powers, associate director of Clarkson's Institute for a Sustainable Environment, who is overseeing the project. "We're trying to balance heat needs and light needs. The structure you need for heat is exactly the opposite of what you need for light."

Unlike typical greenhouses, the one at Clarkson will have only one wall that is open to absorb light, and it will be connected to an "energy cabin," which will heat the building through a combination of solar power and a wood pellet boiler. The energy cabin will be connected to an anaerobic digester, which will produce biogas from waste that comes from the university's dining halls. The three systems will be integrated once each of them is functional.

The greenhouse will have lighting installed with sensors that will turn the lights on and off, depending on the amount of light coming in through the clear south wall.

Ms. Powers and a group of students have been designing the greenhouse for at least two years, using funds from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Last spring, the group received a $75,000 grant from the EPA to build a pilot greenhouse to figure out what works. It will be trying to balance heat and light needs in the building's three rooms, each of which can be controlled separately.

"We don't expect perfect results or much production the first year," Ms. Powers said. "We will be learning a lot and measuring a lot so we can improve. That's the point of a pilot. It's better than on paper."

Fifteen students will work in the greenhouse, doing everything from building it over the next month to planting the seeds and monitoring the heat and light systems. At first, they plan to grow only lettuce, but may expand to tomatoes.

Since they do not know how many of the plants will survive, it is impossible to say what will happen to the vegetables when they are ripe.

"It depends on how much we produce," Ms. Powers said. "Students working on it might have a salad party, or there might be enough to have a salad night at the dining halls. Whatever we grow, it won't be wasted."