Welcome To The Future Of Aquaponics!
Franz Schreier’s Aquaponic Solar Greenhouse combined with Friendly Aquaponics growing technologies grows FIVE TIMES as many plants at ONE-FIFTH THE COST to build and operate!
Franz Schreier is Friendly Aquaponics’ new partner; he lives on the opposite side of the world from Hawaii, in Heppenheim, Germany. It’s a bit colder there, so Franz developed a solar greenhouse that allows him to grow fish and vegetables year-round.
We’ve come up with an awesome vertical growing system (that can be used with EITHER aquaponic or hydroponic nutrient solutions) that puts eight to ten times as many plants per square foot into the solar greenhouse as the best current vertical growing systems can, and 20 times as many plants per square foot as UVI’s or Nelson and Pade’s raft-based aquaponics systems do (Our raft-based aquaponics systems already hold 4 times as many plants per square foot as UVI’s or Nelson and Pade’s systems do ). The Solar Greenhouse is NOT the same as conventional oil-guzzling “Controlled Environment Agriculture”, it is a completely new, sustainable, affordable, and energy-efficient combination of technologies.
As a result of combining these two technologies, the “Franz-and-Friendly” solar greenhouse has a cost per plant to build and operate that is one-fifth the cost of ANY current technology, or LESS, and this number INCLUDES the cost of the greenhouse, aquaponics system, alternate energy system, photovoltaic panels (PV’s), and battery bank to operate a completely off-grid solar greenhouse. Also, you are NOT limited to aquaponic growing, because this greenhouse will work with standard hydroponic growing solutions or our organically approved hydroponic growing technology if you want organic certification.
Although we’d make a lot more money by licensing this technology to manufacturers, we feel the world doesn’t need more of that. We know it would only delay the arrival of a beneficial technology on the market, as well as make it cost far more. What the world needs is economical ways for people to feed other people, no matter what their climate or weather. We’re here to help with that. For 2012 we’ve decided to offer all our February courses at half their usual price, to make it as affordable as possible for everyone to attend
- This greenhouse may look expensive at first glance, it is the least inexpensive of any available aquaponic technology on a per plant basis, which is what really matters. There’s a link at the bottom of this page to a slideshow that will show and tell you more about the Aquaponic Solar Greenhouse, and there’s a link to register for the FIRST Aquaponic Solar Greenhouse Training in February 2012, being held in Honokaa, Hawaii.
Here are the Aquaponic Solar Greenhouse’s benefits to you:
- Fish are not necessary; you choose if you want to include them! Get USDA Organically Certified and grow with EITHER fish (aquaponics) or our organically approved (yet affordable) hydroponic solution with this growing system. No one else in the WORLD is teaching this now.
- Ability to grow year-round in temperature extremes from 10 below zero to 110 degrees of heat means you have no yearly “gap” in food production, also means fresh produce is available year-round.
- The ability to produce eight to ten times as many plants per square foot as the best current vertical growing systems means this greenhouse costs you far less to build and operate per plant than any currently available technology. This means less work for you, or more profit if you’re doing this commercially.
- The specially-made PV panels have multiple functions: they deliver electricity for operating air blowers and water pumps; they function as heat exchangers: cooling in summer and heating in winter; and the excess electricity they generate can be stored or fed back into the grid for credit. All these benefit you by saving you money when building and operating. Their “shadowing” function is shown in the image below.
- The ETFE PAR film used inside the greenhouse makes more sunlight usable by the plants, increasing growth without spending additional money for lighting or more PV panels (shown in the image to the left).
- The Sulfur Plasma lamps used for supplemental lighting in this technology exactly mimic the natural light from the sun, and produce up to twice as many lumens (how light is measured) per watt of electricity consumed as standard metal halide, high-pressure sodium, or even LED grow lights.
- Because of the efficiency in growing provided by the greater concentration of plants per square foot, the actual structure of this greenhouse is much smaller than conventional ones, requiring less land and lower construction costs. This also means lower heating, cooling, wind, and snow loads associated with the structure, with attendant lower costs for dealing with them.
- The second-generation Aquaponic Solar Greenhouse we’re building at the Friendly farm in Hawaii is designed for modular construction so that it can be built in pieces in a sheltered location, then moved to your site and quickly assembled. Using our modular construction system, you can build this greenhouse yourself, from economical, easily-available, sustainable and renewable materials: standard construction grade lumber and plywood! You don’t need to buy overpriced components from far away and then pay for delivery.