Day 2 - Systems Thinking and Finger Lakes Fresh Greenhouse

Day 2 was focused on the concept of Systems Thinking in the context of energy, fuel, and product development.  The morning sessions were dedicated to hearing from two Cornell professors.

First we heard from Dr. C. Lindsay Anderson, professor of Biological and Environmental Engineering.  Dr. Anderson spoke on two, superficially unrelated but intricately linked, topics: using technology to go paperless, and using systems analysis to understand the wind industry.

Given that US is going to a one-to-one Mac program with the sophomores in 2012-2013, Dr. Anderson's first topic is of particular interest to me.  Evernote, a integrated note-taking software/app package, can be used to warehouse information gathered from traditional and non-traditional sources.  Input methods include typed text, emails, clippings from the internet, photographs, audio notes, as well as linked documents from other apps (Notability, Dropbox, UPad, Bamboo Paper, etc.).  On the topic of efficiency, we also learned about several other tools that can be used to minimize the need for paper copies of anything.  Namely, we looked at FormulatePro which enables typing, addition of shapes or drawings, onto PDF documents, thus allowing the user to fill out and sign documents electronically.  Nozbe is a unique workflow web site that allows the user to centralize the decision-making and tasks necessary to work through a project.  Lastly, Papers2 is an app that acts like iTunes for scientific articles.

After a short break Dr. Anderson started her second presentation that looked at systems thinking and the wind industry.  It is important to understand that a system is a collection of processes where one big thing is built from several smaller things, all oriented towards the common goal.  The idea of systems thinking is integral when considering an alternative energy system, and in Dr. Anderson's work that energy is wind power.  She introduced us to how subsystems can impact an entire system, and that and ad hoc assemblage of subsystems is doomed to failure, or at the very least a lot of headaches.

Of particular interest to me was her discussion of the Vee Model.  Specifically, the Vee Model describes the deconstruction of a system to its pieces to see if they work individually, and then, simplistically speaking, put those pieces back together to make sure they work as a whole.  This was put into play by considering how the wind industry works.  It isn't enough to simply build a wind turbine and then hope the wind blows.  You need to consider several sub-systems that can't be thought of as being mutually exclusive.

Wind Energy Integration

• Atmospheric considerations: wind speeds, output
• Power Generation: transmission of energy and potential generation
• Socioeconomic considerations: what is the load/demand?
• Market forces: price and rate

Looking at all the sub-systems, it is obvious that there is much more in play here, but ultimately when you consider that wind power is only available when the wind blows, the backbone of a usable wind energy model is the quality of your wind forecasting.  If you can reasonably predict when the wind will blow and how fast the wind will blow you can reliably bid your energy generation at a price that makes sense and avoid penalties for failure to generate what you said you could.  

After lunch, we had the opportunity to visit the Finger Lakes Fresh which is a hydroponic greenhouse that specializes in growing leafy greens in a high density environment year-round in a temperate northern climate.  They are able to produce over 1,200 heads of lettuce daily as part of a 35 day growing cycle from seed to harvest.  

Romaine and Boston lettuce at Finger Lakes Fresh

The greenhouse produces several different types of lettuce including Romaine, Boston, Green and Red Leaf Lettuce, as well as Arugula and Bok Choy.

Young red and green leaf lettuce

The plant manger, Bob, has been at the greenhouse for 12 years and has a background in aquaculture.  Not only did he talk about the logistics and operations of the greenhouse, he also spoke about the labor force that is employed at the greenhouse.  Finger Lakes Fresh is a subsidiary of Challenge Industries which employs developmentally challenged individuals that may not be able to find traditional employment.

Bob describes the operations of Finger Lakes Fresh's greenhouse

 Lastly, we got to see how Finger Lakes Fresh begins it's crop.  The lettuce seeds are planted in a rock foam substrate and allowed to germinate.  As they grow, they are thinned and added to a foam cell and floated at an end of one of the four ponds.  As they continue to grow they are moved down the pond as heads are harvested.  Finally, they are harvested live, and placed in a clamshell, boxed, and shipped to local grocery stores for sale.

Progression from small plant to final harvest size

Seedlings in the rock foam substrate