20151024

Next Ten Years

World’s First Hydraulic-Driven Vertical Farm Produces 1 Ton of Vegetables Every Other Day
Lorraine Chow | September 11, 2015 10:42 am | Comments
Bottom of Form
Year-round vegetables, minimal resources, climate-resistant—we’ve sung praises about vertical farmsmany times before. But Singapore’s Sky Greens is something very special.
skygreensSky Greens’ four-story rotating greenhouse produces 1 ton of leafy greens every other day using a hydraulic-driven system that rotates and provides sunlight for the growing troughs. Photo credit: Sky Greens
Designed by engineer and entrepreneur Jack Ng, Sky Farms runs on a so-called Sky Urban Vertical Farming System and is also heralded as “the world’s first low-carbon hydraulic driven urban vertical farm.”
What does that mean? Well, for such a modern and innovative idea, Sky Greens actually uses good ol’ fashioned rainwater and gravity. Using a water-pulley system, 38 growing troughs rotate around an A-shaped aluminum tower that’s about 9 meters (about 30 feet) tall. The rotating troughs ensure even distribution of natural sunlight for each plant.
Not only that, the same water used to turn the troughs also nourishes the plants. According to the company, “With the plants irrigated and fertilized using a flooding method, there is no need for a sprinkler system thereby eliminating electricity wastage, as well as water wastage due to run-offs.”
“Only 0.5 liters of water is required to rotate the 1.7 ton vertical structure,” the company boasts. “The water is contained in a enclosed underground reservoir system and is recycled and reused.” Additionally, only 40W electricity, or the equivalent of one light bulb, is needed to power a single 9 meter tower.
The farm consists of 1,000 vertical towers and produces 800 kilograms of Chinese cabbage, spinach, kai lan and other greens everyday for the bustling Southeast Asian metropolis, according to The Straits Times. The farm has been producing vegetables commercially since 2012.
Check out the image below to see how it works.
Sky Greens’ vegetables do cost slightly more than fare from traditional farms. “A 200g packet of Sky Greens xiao bai cai costs $1.25, while a 250g bag of Pasar brand xiao bai cai from a traditional farm in Singapore costs 80 cents,” The Straits Times reported.
However, the publication also pointed out the freshness factor: it only takes four hours for Sky Greens’ produce to hit the shelves versus the three days to three weeks that imported vegetables require.
Vertical farming is ideal for densely packed cities such as Singapore, which only produces about 7 percent of the vegetables it consumes. Its 5 million inhabitants occupy a total land area of only 275 square miles. (To compare, Los Angeles is twice the size of Singapore with a population of 3.8 million). With this lack of land, nearly 93 percent Singapore’s “fresh” produce is imported. The Sky Greens solution not only cuts the distance that food has to travel to get to plates, it helps ensure Singapore’s food security and helps the local economy.
In the video below, Ng explains how the system works and why it’s ideal for Singapore, a city with limited land resources.
Last month, the Sky Greens took home the INDEX: Award 2015 in the “work” category. The prize, one of the most prestigious in the design world, recognizes innovations that help improve the world.
The Sky Urban Vertical Farming System was given the award for representing “the next generation of sustainable urban agriculture” and for proving that “vertical farming can compete with, and produce better results than traditional farming,” the award jury said in a statement.
“Moreover,” the jury added, “it is a scalable design that can be implemented almost anywhere in the world, and has the capacity to ensure more food supply resilience across the globe, as well as preserve the world’s natural resources.”
vertfarm750Photo credit: Sky Greens
Jury member Simona Rocchi, the senior director for sustainable design at Philips, called the system “a brilliant combination of high-tech and great design thinking.”
As for how Ng will spend his €100,000 Index prize? “I [will] use this recognition as a platform to inspire young designers, architects, entrepreneurs to contribute their ideas, ideals and passionate energy to meet the global challenge in food production sustainability as well as my peers and contemporaries (I am 51 years old—half a century!) to follow my example by investing in the next generation with their experience and resources,” Ng said in a statement.
“Specifically, I would also like to encourage more people with good scientific and engineering knowledge to apply their expertise to transform agriculture and save our environment,” he continued. “At the same time, I would like to demonstrate that it is important that as long as you adopt the spirit of serving the greater good of customers, community or even the entire human race, success can follow.”

The next decade or so promises to be an exciting time for science and innovative technology. Ideas that were once the preserve of imaginative science fiction writers are moving closer to becoming reality, and if you thought the advancements made over the last couple of decades were impressive, they are likely to be put firmly in to the shade by upcoming innovations. Here are ten incredible technological improvements we can expect to see in upcoming years, many of which are already at a very well developed stage of planning.
1. Revolving Buildings
Dynamic Tower
The transformation of Dubai into a global city, international business hub and one of the richest places in the world is a story in itself. And while it is now associated with wealth and decadence, it also provides a platform for some incredible architectural innovations, including Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.
The latest addition to this collection is the 'Dynamic Tower', a rotating building made of 59 independently rotating floors that will move at 6 meters per minute, meaning those inside get an ever changing view of the world outside without noticing that they're being spun around. Each floor will also have its own wind turbine that will create enough energy to power the building and several others. It's all still a design concept as things stand, but the technology is far from out of reach and we can expect rotating, energy producing buildings in the near future.
Video introducing Dynamic Tower:
 
2. Computers Controlled by the Mind
Technology c hanges
If you are looking for a tangible indicator of technological advancements over the last thirty or forty years, you only need to look at the way computers have changed. A smart phone you can hold in the palm of your hand or a Mac Book that's so thin you can barely see it when looking at it from the side can now do the same, if not more, than a computer that filled a room back in 1970.
So where do we go from here? Well scientists have made some big strides in the use of brainwaves to control computers. Plenty of research groups are experimenting this type of technology, although users may be required to have a small implant in order to use the technology, according to Intel researcher Dean Pomerleau so there is a price to pay. Imagine, however, being able to surf the internet using the power of thought!
The headset that reads brainwaves:


 
3. Energy Produced by Nature
Solar Cell
The idea of solar energy is not exactly a new concept, but it is starting to make the sort of strides that could ensure that we are much less reliant on unsustainable fuel sources like gas and coal. This is largely because the cost of producing the technology needed to harness the sun's energy is coming down, so the price-per-watt is becoming more and more affordable.
A company called Sandia have invented a solar cell that uses 100 times less material than current solar panels. In fact, the Sandia cells are microscopic in comparison and are well on the way to eliminating the biggest obstacle to the widespread use of solar power - the expense of producing the technology. They are also flexible enough to be suspended in liquid or over a var iety of surfaces so they could, theoretically, cover a whole car for example.
4. Rise of the Robots
Robotics is one sector of science and technology that has come on leaps and bound since the turn of the century. We're not yet in a position to have robots drive us into town or cook dinner before we get home, but we have made some pretty big strides. Scientists have created a robot that has shown the capacity to learn how produce human facial expressions based on feedback it receives to a computer when randomly contorting its face. Here is the Einstein look-alike bot in action:
Meanwhile, other robots are learning how to run and negotiate difficult terrain. BigDog is a bipedal bot that walks heel-to-toe just like a person, and can break into a sprint as well. Could these robots soon be running our errands or even used in warfare?
 
5. Self-Powered Warm Clothing
Self powered clothing
If you think that changes in clothing design are more about aesthetics than scientific advancements, then think again. Outdoor clothing in particular has developed hugely in recent years, with adventurous types being offered lighter and thinner ways to insulate and waterproof themselves on hikes and climbs. The best is yet to come however, as scientists are working on 'fiber-based nanogenerators' designed to harness the energy you use as you walk to keep you warm. So rather than having to wear five or six layers in wint er, you could soon have a sweater with a built-in central heating system.
 
6. How Cars Are Powered
Electric Car
The future of road travel looks set to change greatly over coming decades, as you may have seen in our recent article about the cars of tomorrow. There are several ways in which road vehicles could be powered decades from now, but electricity seems to be the frontrunner, not least because there are electric cars already on the road of course. Technological advancements are likely to bring the price of electric cars down, and with innovations like roads that charge your car as you drive in the planning stage, expect to see as many 'charging points' as 'gas stations' in the not too distant future.
Of course, how we propel the cars forward after we've worked out how to power them could also change, given that Tesla and Google are both working on autonomous self-driving cars that could remove the effort of driving altogether!
May also interest you:

What do you think? Are these advances for better or for worse? Are they exciting or scary? Will you be happy about the idea of having a chip fitted in your brain? Let us know if the comments section!
7. Bionic Body Parts
Bionic Hand
Losing the use of a limb is a nightmare faced by many across the world, but recent developments are moving us closer to viable, artificial equivalents. A company called Touch Bionics has produced fully functional bionic hands that can be fitted to a recipient without the need for surgery and can be covered with a plastic simulation of living human skin, The limbs are controlled by the brain and allow users to both lift and manipulate objects using the fingers. It currently costs a sizeable $50,000 unfortunately, but with the technology in place, we can hope that bionic technology can continue to develop in ways that will benefit us all in coming years:
8. Our Interaction with the World
Google Glass
When you are living your life, it's easy to let the sheer magnitude of change pass us by unnoticed. But take a second to think about how we interact and communicate with the world today compared to what we used to do even just a couple of decades ago, and it's mind boggling how far we've come. The internet and smart phones have made us more accessible as people, and given us a gateway to a whole wealth of information that we once had to go to serious effort to find.
New concepts are building on these innovations too. Google Glass already allows a user to take a picture of a place or building and receive instant information about it to their phone. And this is just laying the foundations for what's to come. As soon as the technology exists and people are comfortable with the idea, we can expect brain chips to hit the market and revolutionize our interactions completely. These will allow 'pop ups' to appear in our field of view, giving us all sorts of information about the world around us. According to Google technology chief Raymond Kurzweil, we can expect these pop ups to form part of our daily life by 2020. Before the chips come along, we will just have to be happy with devices that do the same job:

What do you think? Are these advances for better or for worse? Are they exciting or scary? Will you be ha ppy about the idea of having a chip fitted in your brain? Let us know if the comments section!
at