Diverisified Holdings News
Greenhouse First to Bring Green Project to North America
Great Northern Hydroponics Nears Completion Of Environmentally Sensitive Energy Facility
September 14, 2007, Ruthven, Ontario, Canada – The fruits of Great Northern Hydroponics’ labor are both red – and green. The 50-acre tomato greenhouse in southern Ontario is nearing completion of a Tri-Generation Energy Facility that will remove 20 tons of carbon dioxide a year out of the earth’s atmosphere while producing 12 megawatts of electricity. The project is expected to be completed by December 2007.
The $20 million facility, owned by Great Northern’s mother company Soave Hydroponics, will sell the electricity produced to the Ontario government to power 5,000 residential homes in the local area. Great Northern’s President Darrin Didychuk notes that the facility is the first of its kind in North America. “With this project, Soave Hydroponics is leading the greenhouse industry by identifying and investing in innovative technology that benefits our environment.”
Didychuk recently hosted Ontario’s Energy Minister Dwight Duncan and Essex’s Member of Provincial Parliament Bruce Crozier as the officials toured the facility’s construction. “Mr. Duncan is interested in having even greater amounts of energy produced by tri-generation facilities, specifically another 200 to 300 megawatts of power, which is equal to half a nuclear power plant,” details Didychuk. “It is truly the way of the future.”
“Numerous other greenhouses have contacted Soave Hydroponics regarding this emerging technology. As an early adopter, we are proud to be in a position to help propagate an environmentally sustainable project,” Didychuk adds.
Tri-generation technology has been employed by European greenhouses for years. Creating electricity from natural gas produces substantial amounts of thermal energy, as well as carbon dioxide exhaust emissions. This thermal energy, in the form of hot water, is supplied to heat the greenhouses. Additionally, the power plants use the latest in environmental technology to clean the exhaust emissions and extract carbon dioxide. Because carbon dioxide is a key component of photosynthesis, the energy facilities also provide the greenhouse with this necessary “fertilizer” for the greenhouse’s crop.
Great Northern Hydroponics is an affiliate of Soave Enterprises, L.L.C., www.soave.com. Soave Enterprises is a diversified management and investment company founded by Detroit businessman Anthony L. Soave that provides strategic planning, financial and other management resources to its affiliated business ventures in the real estate, automotive retailing, beer distribution, scrap metal, industrial services and transportation industries, among others. Recently, Forbes Magazine ranked Soave Enterprises as the 251st largest privately held company in the United States.
