Breeding material evaluation program. Perennial herbaceous plant breeding material evaluation program for the implementation of integrated agricultural crop production technologies Project leader Aldis Jansons Duration 2019 - 2019 Research focus 2. Preservation of biological diversity in agro- and forest biocenoses, ecosystem protection and services Source of funding Ministry of Agriculture projects Project partners Ritausma LtdUniversity of LatviaBaltic open solution center LtdA. Pundura konsultaciju centrs Ltd Description of project The aim of research The aim of research is to reduce the cost of production grown in covered areas by using sustainable heating technologies; diversify the production of covered areas. The tasks of project: Develop optimal operating conditions for an air-to-air heat pumpConstruct a test greenhouse and drying equipmentGrow selected crops, measure field temperatures and energy consumption, evaluate plant growth and resultsDry biomass samples, evaluate the results Results The energy efficiency of the air to air heat pump was compared to the gas heating system in the industrial production unit. Energy efficiency was found to be approx. 4–8 times higher resulting in 6–10 fold reduction of CO2 emissions as compared to gas heating. The exact reduction rate of the CO2 emissions depends on the CO2 emissions in electricity production since electricity can be supplied by different providers with different CO2 emission levels. The heating costs were somewhat lower than the cost of using natural gas.
