While many business owners would not care for the idea of a power plant being built next door to their company, Great Northern Hydroponics saw instead an exciting opportunity. The company, located 25 miles southeast of Windsor, operates a 50-acre greenhouse where more than 2.1 million cases of gourmet tomatoes are grown and supplied annually to grocery stores and restaurants in and around metro Detroit.
As it turns out, the so called tri-generation facility - the plant burns natural gas to generate heat, electricity, and CO2 - will also save Great Northern plenty of money. But the Ontario province gains advantages as well. For example, the greenhouse will act as a cooling unit for the power plant’s engines, which transmit electricity to approximately 5,000 homes. In fact, Great Northern’s President Darrin Didychuk signed a 20-year power purchase contract with the government of Ontario to generate the 12 mega-watt electrical power facility.
The CO2, meanwhile, will be consumed by the tomato plants in the greenhouse. Because carbon dioxide is a key component of photosynthesis, the energy facility will also provide the greenhouse with this necessary “fertilizer” for the greenhouse’s tomato crop.
That’s on top of other innovative growing practices, including raised troughs, run-off fertilizer […]

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