Combined Heat & Power Greenhouse
by John Laumer, Philadelphia 
on 07.14.09
Greenouse tomatoes. Image credit:Garden of Eaden
How many tomatoes can a power plant grow, if a power plant could grow plants? Great Northern Hydroponics, has installed a GE Energy designed, 12-megawatt commercial power plant at a 55-acre tomato greenhouse complex in Kingsville, Ontario. It's a combined heat and power (CHP) project that runs the greenhouse, sending surplus power to the Ontario grid. Waste heat from the generators keeps the tomatoes warm, and C02, pulled from a treated exhaust gas stream, feeds them.
The plant generates sufficient electricity to Ontario’s transmission grid that can serve around 12,000 to 15,000 Canadian homes annually.Addressing the opening question: Great Northern claims on its website that they produce "over 9,200,000 kg of tomatoes annually." That comes out to roughly three-quarters Kg tomatoes per supplied CHP watt, per year. Nice.
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