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Rosa Flora expands its energy business
April 1, 2012 By Brandi Cowen
Rosa Flora's operations manager Ralph DeBoer with the grower's newest Cat CHP system. Cut flower grower Rosa Flora from Dunnville, Ontario, has expanded the energy side of the business again with the addition of 4 MW of combined heat and power. Energy Edge discusses this and more with operations manager Ralph DeBoer.
We dropped in on Rosa Flora during March’s heat wave to have a look at the new natural gas generating capacity and to chat about the grower’s energy portfolio. Topics included the company’s foray into bioenergy, now almost a decade old, its trademark wind turbine, the energy efficiency designs built into the brand new Plant 5, and its growing CHP business.
“We see a lot of opportunity in energy, and particularly in combined heat and power production,” DeBoer explains. “There is some attractive natural gas pricing out there right now, and as a greenhouse we can achieve levels of efficiency far beyond what most businesses can hope for. Because of our need for the heat, we can surpass 90 per cent thermal efficiency.”
Look to this site next week for the whole report on our visit, as well as to the May issue of Greenhouse Canada. The video from our visit will also be on site soon, so check back often.
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