CFN Media Interviews John Perricone of SunGrown Zero


Rachelle Gordon

May 21st, 2018

News


Cannabis cultivators are constantly searching ways to grow the best product possible while remaining cost-efficient. Outdoor cultivation is considered the best method overall for peak potency & terpene profiles thanks to the sun’s full light spectrum but has chaotic environmental vulnerabilities, sending growers into greenhouses and indoor facilities using artificial lighting. While indoor climate conditions may be easier to control, they are more expensive to operate. SunGrown Zero is an innovative company delivering patented Dynamic Supplemental Sunlight control systems for cannabis cultivation facilities. This offers cultivators the best of both worlds; free, full spectrum sunlight within precisely controlled indoor grow rooms. Ultimately, a resource-efficient (think lower costs, less wasted time & energy) and natural way to grow the best flower possible.

CFN Media recently spoke with SunGrown Zero CEO, John Perricone, to learn about the company’s game-changing lighting solutions and why their technology is going to be critical for the cannabis industry to succeed.

CFN:  How does your technology work?

John Perricone:  The SunGrown Zero system is a novel approach to hybrid- or mixed-light cultivation facility design coupled with optimized operational SOPs and automated grow room intelligence. Using tubular daylighting devices (imagine an air duct, but for sunlight), we are able to capture available sunlight and deliver intense, full-spectrum light directly to the plant canopy within a fully-insulated, tightly controlled indoor grow environment. In a word, SunGrown Zero provides the best features of outdoor cultivation – sunlight & peak cannabinoid/terpene profiles – and the best features of indoor cultivation – climate control, protection from elements & photoperiod manipulation – combined, with the problems or drawbacks of either.

The SunGrown Zero system is backed by over three years & ~$4MM in research & development under the direction of my partner and SunGrown Zero co-founder, Dr. Jonathan Cachat. From the onset, Dr. Cachat established a strong partnership with Solatube International, Inc – the market leader in tubular daylighting device engineering and manufacturing. Solatube has been in business for almost 30 years and have patented innovative, unmatched daylight capture technologies that bring the strong, full-spectrum light of the sun into an indoor space with virtually no radiant heat addition or transfer. So you have sunlight, in all of its glory, in an indoor environment with no heat add. Additionally, because the sunlight is free, your electricity, your operating cost for electricity is vastly reduced.

On the east coast, a SunGrown Zero commercial cultivation facility can operate at an average of approximately 15 watts / square foot, year-round, on perpetual harvest or sequential harvest schedules. On the west coast, a SunGrown Zero facility design that includes on-site energy generation can achieve net-zero operation, a net of 0 watts / square foot. Essentially, if you are in an area that averages over 250 days of sunshine, a SunGrown Zero facility can operate for zero electric cost for the calendar year, while matching contemporary commercial production rates yielding premium flower enhanced by full-spectrum sunlight & kept kind,

CFN:  How do your lighting systems compare with greenhouses?

JP:   Hybrid-light facilities fuels plant growth with a combination of natural sunlight & supplemental artificial light and greenhouses are the most prevalent example. In greenhouse design, there are many different approaches (i.e. glass, poly, hillside) some old some new. However, all greenhouses designs are faulted by the compromise that must be made between light transmittance and insulation value. More light transmittance, less insulation resulting in more heat transfer – both into and out of the facility. This introduces the source of microclimate variations, humidity and temperature fluctuations and susceptibility to mold, fungus and other major problems. The bigger the greenhouse, the more chaotic this struggle becomes. It has been reported that analytic test failure rates (i.e. presence of mold) for greenhouse flower grown in Canada is approximately 50-60%. In other words, these operations have to burn thousands of dollars in product after spending 4-5 months of operating expenses on their growth.

In stabilizing the internal greenhouse environment against daily changes in the external climate, achieving a sustained balance in grow temperature and humidity is a strenuous and expensive task that never quite ends.

A SunGrown Zero facility is not susceptible to the core cause of this chaos – we do not have to compromise sunlight intensity for grow room climate stability. Moreover, Solatube’s are able to transfer 99.7% of the visible light spectrum while rejecting infrared radiation (IR) – it is a “cold sunlight” that does not bring in additional heat. With a fully insulated indoor building shell and lack of radiant heat, SunGrown Zero rooms do not experience uncontrollable variations in temp, humidity or vapor pressure deficits. Ultimately, this stable environment costs less to maintain and produces a less weathered, higher quality flower with smoother consumption characteristics.

A SunGrown Zero facility is designed with supplemental LEDs that are directly coupled to the Solatubes via our PAR-Link™ module. The intensity and spectral composition of LEDs is automatically controlled, in real-time based on the available sunlight at any given moment. This is a core differentiation factor of a SunGrown Zero facility. Energy for supplemental lighting is tightly controlled to optimize efficiency over intensity and less energy is spent on internal climate control because an indoor facility is more resilient to external weather.

For example, our supplemental LEDs primarily operate at less than 20% power of the 12 hours of the flower room that is on. Which means, 80% of the time, particularly in the middle six to eight months of the year, 80% of the time, you’re not using any electricity for your lighting. In the winter months, you’ll use a little bit more.

Double-ended HPS lamps still remain the most prevalent supplemental light choice in light-deprivation greenhouses. Aside from higher operating costs and a deficient light spectrum, the choice of HPS lamps limits the ability of growers to manipulate plant development via photomorphogenesis. Light-Dep operations many be able to squeeze in four harvests / year. The SunGrown Zero system can achieve 5 to 6 cycles / year by mimicking the transition from summer to fall with specific management of LED spectral output. This ushers the plants through their developmental stages and can shave weeks of the cultivation schedule.

Compared to a greenhouse, a SunGrown Zero cultivation facility costs less to operate, is less chaotic and strenuous for growers thanks to stable grow room conditions and produces a superior, kinder flower in an eco-friendly manner beyond that achieved by even the most technologically advanced greenhouse designs.

CFN:  Massachusetts recently announced power limits for cannabis cultivators in the state. How does SunGrown Zero adapt to these regulations?

JP:  Massachusetts is the first state to adopt regulatory power density limits. They are not going to allow cannabis cultivators have a facility design that uses upwards of 75 watts / sq ft – essentially eliminating use of DE-HPS lights. In a sense, Massachusetts essentially looked out and said, “We know that the average kilowatt per square foot cost of the vertical LED farm is 35 watts per square foot.” And they gave a one kilowatt cushion to LED manufacturers and LED facility design.

I’ve been in communication with LED facility designers, and people that are currently in Massachusetts that we’ve been speaking to about switching over to SunGrown Zero. They know that they can’t meet that 36 watts / sq ft limit with HPS lighting, or really any HID lamp. They know that they can’t. They know that they’re going to be above 40 and they’re going to have to sacrifice power and light intensity to hit that 36 number.

Our SunGrown Zero facilities have achieved the same results (flower) on average of less than 10 watts / sq ft. Massachusetts is a leader in that, but it’s starting to become more common. More and more municipalities are rejecting HPS 1,000 watt indoor cultivation facilities and I believe other states will soon put power limits on growers as well.

CFN:  Why should potential investors consider SunGrown Zero?

JP:  SunGrown Zero’s ROI & Recovery Cost is unmatched. Based on operating cost savings alone, we’re looking at an ROI of 24 to 30 months. If you include reinvestment value of wider profit margins and brand value add of a sustainably produced, premium consumer product – no other cultivation facility is even in the ballpark. And why is that? Well, because 80% of the light in the room is brought in by the sun which is free. Essentially our operating costs are a fraction of any other technology that exists today. The heat load requirements that our HVAC has to have is less, so your HVAC build-out costs are lower, and your HVAC operational costs are lower. You have a much smaller backup generator system that you have to install. Your electric demand is so much less, so you have vastly less power that needs to be brought to the site. Waiting for the utility company to schedule power upgrades is an expensive holding pattern that a lot of hopeful operators are all to familiar with. We can eliminate this pain point and get operations up and growing faster.

Additionally, we’re growing the very best quality cannabis in the most environmentally sustainable and business resilient way. From a branding perspective, the cannabis that has a SunGrown Zero certification mark represents a premium product produced in an eco-friendly, social conscious way. This is a niche and value-add for consumers that does not yet exist in the cannabis market. Research shows that consumers, particularly the upcoming generations, seek out sustainable, fair-trade, organic and chemical free products – traveling further and spending more to do so. Consider how quickly “natural, organic” sections of your local grocery have grown. The recent acquisition of Whole Foods by Amazon for $14B also illustrates the prevalence and influence of these consumer motivations. The organic label is enough for people on the east coast of the United States to charge three and four times the same cost for the same fruit. A non-organic nectarine is $1.19 in Coldspring at the supermarket. An organic one is $4.99. There is no other commercial cannabis production system that can compete with the energy efficiency, operational resiliency and minimal environmental impact of SunGrown Zero product.

We are going to be the industry standard in facility design. You will make a better profit and you will make more money if you partner up with us now, than if you wait and do it later. I can promise you that. The people who jump on board with us now will be partners as we license this technology, software and operational processes. We are actively seeking investment partners to close the SunGrown Zero flagship capital raise. The 10,000 sq ft flagship will be built in Southern California (or other location with ample days of sunlight) and is expected to produce over 2,500 pounds annually at 85% less cost than our competitors. So while revenue will be made in flower sales, providing a bulk of the return on investment, the bigger picture purpose of the facility is as a sale floor for operators to visit, witness and learn the SunGrown Zero system.

I’d further offer the SunGrown Zero technology can work for all agriculture, not just for cannabis cultivation, because of its energy and resource efficiency design, it can compete with greenhouse installations all over the world. And anywhere the climate change is having an impact on your ability to grow vegetables outdoors, SunGrown Zero’s climate control technology and solar capture technology can remedy those problems. The potential applications are broader than the cannabis cultivation market alone.

Truly, the best of both worlds with the problems of neither. So whether you’re troubled by the carbon footprint of your HPS operation, sick of reactively fighting problems arising from balancing temp and humidity, need to reduce production costs to remain profitable or stuck with a site without enough power – SunGrown Zero represents the best solution for your biggest problems. We like to say – rather than reactively putting bandaids on small reoccurring problems, eliminate the source of the problems & replace it with the sun.

SunGrown Zero can be found at www.sungrownzero.com, across social media @sungrownzero and contacted via email – hello@sungrownzero.com or phone 530-746-8381.

This article was published by CFN Enterprises Inc. (OTCQB: CNFN), owner and operator of CFN Media, the industry’s leading agency and digital financial media network dedicated to the burgeoning CBD and legal cannabis industries. Call +1 (833) 420-CNFN for more information.

About Rachelle Gordon

Rachelle Gordon is a Minneapolis-based writer. Find her online at www.rachellegordon.net.


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