The first thing that made my day this morning was a spectacular press release from Click & Grow. Having already reviewed their nanotechnology inspired Smart Gardens before, I can say they are a team contributing to the future of technology in a superb way. For quite some time now, this team from Estonia has been famous for their innovative food production technologies. But today’s news can take them to a totally new level of excellence altogether. Because not everyone out there decides to take a step ahead in growing food on Mars! Yes, you heard that right!
Growing Fresh Veggies For Entire California
According to their announcement, they are building a 5 km2 (53,000 ft2) underground thermonuclear cucumber “factory” where fresh vegetables for the entire state of California will be grown at a fraction of the current price. This plant is about to be constructed outside Reno, Nevada and located near the Tesla Gigafactory. In fact, it will also feature a novel energy source relying on thermonuclear fusion. That might sound crazy to some of you but the kind of products they have released till date is proof to the level of innovation the team at Click & Grow possess.
Mr. Pedastsaar, the head of the Click & Grow’s R&D says, “By replicating the natural processes occurring on the Sun, we have found a way to produce light for plants without the transformation of energy to electricity and back, which enables us to drop the price of the end product by a considerable amount, and speeds up the growing process. This is truly the technology of the future, and we’ve made it a reality. Being able to replicate the Sun and grow food with thermonuclear energy has only been possible in the wildest dreams of scientists and engineers so far.”
This illustration below shows how by combining Deuterium and Tritium, a safe thermonuclear fusion occurs which in turn releases Helium and energy to grow cucumbers.
Introducing the Heart of This Space Garden
Tokamak (a device using a magnetic field to confine a plasma), the heart of the “garden”, is already in place and has already been successfully tested. “The cucumbers love it. Also, the excess heat from the fusion reaction can be used to warm up the irrigation water,” Pedastsaar states.
In fact, this technology will also lead to a lot of energy savings as well. This is because the Click & Grow technology uses 96% less water than the regular type of agriculture, which leads to incredible savings and very high energy efficiency. Mr. Lepp, the founder and CEO of Click & Grow, explains that, “By using an ultra-efficient energy source, we can produce cucumbers and tomatoes at a price up to 10 times cheaper than the tomatoes of the greenhouse producers of Mexico.” The construction is estimated to end in April 2018 and the plant should be fully operational by the end of 2019.
But the biggest news is the fact that the company also aims to collaborate with Space X and NASA to make this technology usable for sustainable food production on interstellar flights and future Mars missions.
We all knew the beauty of Click & Grow and how they have taken the art of indoor gardening to a new level, using which you are able to grow plants with zero effort. This new announcement from the team only comes as an icing on the cake. Cheers to Click & Grow and hope to see them succeed soon. Happy Gadgeting!
Illustrations: Janar Raidla for Click & Grow
Update: Good April Fool Celebration by the way!