A plant cultivation system for a plant factory that cultivates plants. The plant factory has a building with roof and walls, which may be in the form of a greenhouse with a roof and windows that may be opened and closed. A plant factory using the plant cultivation system cultivates plants for harvest and/or sale. The plant factory plant utilizes a trolley conveyor for transport of plants in plant containers. The trolley conveyor uses straight runs of track connected by curved track portions. The straight runs of track of the trolley conveyor are spaced closely together with space only provided for passage of plant containers in a side by side fashion, as no room for workers is necessary. The plant containers take the plant containers to workers in a workshop for planting, cultivation, harvesting of plants or portions thereof, and packaging of plants or portions thereof for shipment. As a result, labor is minimized, and the productivity of the plant factory is increased.

A trolley conveyor. The trolley conveyor includes: a tubular rail track having a slotted opening at the top. A trolley chain installed to move in the rail track. A hanger is provided for suspending therebelow objects to be transported. The hanger includes a connector at the upper end thereof which extends downward to toward the center of the trolley chain. The trolley chain includes vertical and horizontal rollers in chain units, with vertical rollers in one chain unit and horizontal rollers in an adjacent chain unit. The chain units are pivotally connected for up and down and side to side motion within the track. While the trolley chain moves, the connector avoids contact with the ends of the slot in the track. Thus, the trolley conveyor prevents the generation of noise and foreign substances. Also, the trolley conveyor prevents transfer of dirt, oil, and debris to an object being transported.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, includes computer programs encoded on a storage device, for sensor-assisted indoor gardening. In one aspect, a monitoring system is disclosed that includes a processor and a computer storage media storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations. The operations may include determining that a particular plant type is growing in a zone of a property, determining, based on sensor data generated by one or more sensors installed at the property, whether a current value of an environmental attribute of the zone of the property satisfies a threshold environmental value for the particular plant type, and performing, by the monitoring system, one or more operations configured to instruct a configurable device installed at the property to modify the current value of the environmental attribute of the zone of the property towards the threshold environmental value for the plant type.

Arrangement of a closed greenhouse (10) with optimised temperature control, including at least one module (10-1 to 10-n), comprising a framework and a peripheral film so as to constitute an enclosed space, comprising a front wall (16), a rear wall (18) and two side walls, left (20) and right (22) as well as a roof (24) with ridge, as well as at least one access opening with an airlock, at least one evaporating panel (26) for water diffusion, a water supply circuit (32) and at least one interior air extractor (34), characterized in that said at least one interior air extractor (34) is disposed in the immediate vicinity of the ridge of the roof (24)

An arrangement of photovoltaic panels is configured for installation in a greenhouse having support beams. The arrangement includes frames. Each frame comprises at least one photovoltaic panel mounted on a rod. At least one motor is mechanically connected to rotate one or more rods, for bringing each photovoltaic panel to different fixed angular positions. Fittings are arranged at a perimeter of the arrangement. Each fitting is sized and shaped to attach to at least one of the support beams, such that the arrangement is supportable exclusively by the support beams. A system includes at least one such arrangement, a controller, and a plurality of sensors. The controller is programmed to select an optimal fixed angular position for each photovoltaic panel for promoting plant growth, based on environmental and plant conditions and the sensor outputs, and to instruct each motor to rotate each rod to the selected angular position.

An apparatus for growing plants. The apparatus has an enclosure constructed from a rigid material. The enclosure has at least a main chamber, a middle chamber, and a bottom chamber, each of the main chamber. The main chamber is light proof and water proof Inside the main chamber, a mesh table base is positioned to hold a plurality of plants. The middle chamber is located below the main chamber. A waterproof shelf is located within the middle chamber and is designed to collect any water runoff from the plants. The bottom chamber is located below the middle chamber. The apparatus further has a grow control unit (GCU) located within the enclosure. The GCU has a plurality of control systems including a lighting control system, an environmental control system, irrigation control system, and nutritional control system. An automated control unit (ACU) is located within the bottom chamber. The ACU is configured to automatically manage and monitor the grow conditions within the main chamber based on pre-established grow criteria. In order to adjust the grow conditions, the ACU is connected to the GCS to automatically engage or disengage at least one of the plurality of control systems.

A power generation plant includes a support structure formed by supporting piles aligned fastened to the ground, such structure being a bi-dimensional structure placed on an agricultural land, with any orientation. The power generation plant further includes a handling system for solar energy receptor devices placed on the piles arranged in a row, adapted to allow the handling of such devices around at least a first axis. The plant also includes one or more greenhouses for intensive cultivation of agricultural products, on the ground beneath such receptor devices, between rows of adjacent piles.

Greenhouse comprised of a ridge beam extending some distance above its roof defining two elongated side zones at either side of the ridge beam. The ridge beam is comprised of one or more elongated hollow spaces and with one or more closable openings in both side zones. The openings fluidly connect the exterior of the greenhouse with its interior and may be closed at one side and opened at its other side depending on the direction of the wind.

The invention relates to an apparatus for the growing of plants, which includes a frame, to which plants can be set to grow in a substrate, irrigation means fitted to the frame, for irrigating the substrate with an irrigation liquid, and means fitted to the frame for creating an airflow through the substrate. At least some of the plants together with their substrates are placed in modular growing units and places are arranged in the frame for the growing units, into which they can be detachably installed, independently of the irrigation means. In addition, the invention also relates to a growing device.

A retractable roof structure has a pair of longitudinally spaced supports, guide wires extending between said supports and positioned to support a covering in a required profile. The covering comprises a plurality of sections arranged in seriatim along the guide wires with each section slidably supported on the guide wires so as to be moveable between an open position in which the area beneath the covering is exposed and a closed position in which the area beneath the covering is covered. A drive member extends between the supports and is connected to one end of each of the sections at a first location to move the one end along the guide wires. A tensile member, such as a rope or cable, extends from the peak of the leading edge of one section to the lower corner of the leading edge of a section along a path so that movement of the peak is transmitted by the tensile member to the eaves to move the section along the eave guide wire in the same direction.