Resource Innovation Institute Announces CEA Accelerator Working Group Topics Focused on AI, Robotics, Energy Management, and High-Tech Greenhouse Strategies

Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, working groups will be hosted in partnership with Berkeley Lab as part of the CEA Accelerator Project

PORTLAND, Ore. (September 18, 2024) —  Resource Innovation Institute (RII), a not-for-profit, public-private partnership advancing climate resilience, announced today the topics for its working groups under the CEA Accelerator Project. Funded through the U.S. Department of Energy Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) and hosted in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), each working group brings together members from the public sector, academia, private sector and growers to examine critical issues relevant to the ongoing advancement of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA).

“The long term future of CEA depends upon the ongoing work we are doing to identify the tools and processes that best help growers leverage opportunities to increase efficiencies, meet day-to-day challenges and expand the possibilities of current operations,” said Derek Smith, Executive Director of Resource Innovation Institute. “This year’s working groups will be focused on finding best practices for CEA operators to implement new technologies in crop management and automation, develop better energy management strategies and glean knowledge from successful CEA efforts in Canada and the Netherlands.”

The working groups include:

●       Energy Management Working Group:  With a focus on addressing challenges and opportunities related to energy management in CEA, this group will advise on and recommend advanced strategies on issues including strategic energy management, peak reduction, decarbonization and electrification, demand response and distributed generation.

●       Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Advanced Robotics Working Group: As AI and robotics CEA applications rapidly advance, this group will collaboratively develop and recommend industry best practices for the effective adoption of these technologies in controlled environment agriculture, including but not limited to sensing and imaging, crop modeling, autonomous growing, data collection, and utility-price forecasting for resource optimization.

●       Industry Working Group on High-Tech Greenhouse Knowledge Transfer: This group will be dedicated to facilitating the exchange of expertise, best practices, and innovative strategies between greenhouse crop producers in the United States and established markets in the Netherlands and Canada. The group’s mission is to empower U.S. producers with the knowledge and tools necessary to leverage high-tech greenhouse design and operations, ultimately enhancing productivity, sustainability, and competitiveness within the industry.

Each group will produce a related Best Practices Guide designed to serve as a resource for CEA operators working to manage resources more efficiently. The groups kicked off in May with the initial meeting of the Energy Management Working Group, with work for all groups to be completed by early 2025. The partnership between RII, IEDO and Berkeley Lab comes on the heels of a yearslong collaboration between RII, its members, academic partners and greenhouse and indoor operators that developed a foundation of CEA benchmarking, reports and best practices through a grant funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The overarching goal of this partnership is to bring these assets and strategies to market with the ability to scale for growth of the CEA industry.

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Elyse Greenberg at elyse@resourceinnovation.org.  

About Resource Innovation Institute: We advance climate resilience through accelerating resource efficiency in controlled environment agriculture

Resource Innovation Institute (RII) is a not-for-profit, public-private partnership advancing climate resilience. RII provides resource efficiency education, training and data-driven verification, in collaboration with CEA producers, researchers, governments, utilities, and the design & construction sector. Visit our website at ResourceInnovation.org. Follow us on LinkedIn.

About Berkeley Lab

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to delivering solutions for humankind through research in clean energy, a healthy planet, and discovery science. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 16 Nobel Prizes. Researchers from around the world rely on the Lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

About the Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office

The U.S. Department of Energy Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) accelerates the innovation and adoption of cost-effective technologies that eliminate industrial greenhouse gas emissions. Learn more about IEDO’s mission and what the office is doing to help decarbonize American agriculture.