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Plant lighting: blocked in the short term and expected in the future

Since the third quarter of 2021, LED red chips for plants have been in short supply due to the market demand for automotive and infrared LEDs, especially in high-order chips.

At the same time, the power driven IC is still out of stock, the delay of shipping schedule and the crackdown on indoor marijuana growers in North America also affect the delivery performance of terminal products, so that some led plant lighting manufacturers begin to slow down the production plan and material preparation strength.

The rapid development of plant lighting has cast a shadow. Should we ride the snow in the wind and break the ice in the future, or should we stop and stop in time? In order to deeply understand the enterprise layout and strategy, ledinside conducted in-depth communication with front-line enterprises on the pain points, difficulties and market development trend of plant lighting.

Traditional lighting vs plant lighting: higher requirements and higher threshold

Led plant lighting is very different from traditional lighting, mainly in terms of use scene, performance and technology, which also makes led plant lighting have a high industry threshold.

As a comprehensive supplier of lamps and plant factory solutions, Zhongke Sanan believes that plant lighting products put forward higher requirements for the R & D ability, independent innovation ability, quality and cost control ability of the system. Among them, the difference between technology research and development and other lighting products mainly lies in the design of light formula.

In terms of chips, dry lighting optoelectronics pointed out that plant lighting products mainly focus on photosynthetic photon efficiency PPE / photosynthetic photon flux PPF, while general lighting mainly focuses on LM and anti blue light.

Customers have different requirements for chip performance for different purposes. Huacan optoelectronics pointed out that led plant lighting requires the chip to have higher light efficiency and higher reliability. In the pursuit of 230lm / W light efficiency, specially optimized substrates, flip chips, special mirrors and other technologies need to be used; When pursuing high reliability, it puts forward high requirements for process control and the selection of key raw materials.

At the packaging end, Hongli Zhihui pointed out that the biggest difficulty in entering the LED plant lighting market is to develop and produce a set of high-yield and high-quality LED plant light sources or lamps, which needs to solve the problem of integrated development of light environment intelligent regulation, plant photobiology and LED semiconductor technology at the same time.

Guoxing optoelectronics said that the difference between plant lighting and traditional lighting is that plant lighting is more in line with the growth characteristics of plants. It needs to be considered from the perspective of bio optics. It should not only match the needs of different plants for PPE / PPFD, but also adjust the spectral formula in combination with the growth of plants at different stages. In this regard, Guoxing optoelectronics is also at the forefront of the market, There is a professional plant growth laboratory and a spectral database simulating plant growth.

Ruifeng optoelectronics believes that entering the plant lighting market not only needs the technical reserves of light sources and modules, but also needs to understand the market and policy trend. In addition, for different regions, different plant species and different growth stages of the same plant, it is necessary to establish the most suitable and efficient "light formula" database and corresponding scheme, so the stickiness between the supplier and the demander is also higher.

Jingke electronics said that plant lighting is mainly high-power and high light efficiency products, which requires enterprises to accumulate LED packaging technology for a long time. At the same time, customers have high requirements for the service life of LED plant lighting products, and the products need 5-10 years of quality assurance.

Xuyu photoelectric believes that plant lighting products are special lighting products for plant lighting occasions. For example, according to the application object of plant lighting, it is necessary to design a spectrum that can cause a specific reaction of plants; According to the particularity of spectrum, we need to use the rich and adjustable spectral performance of led to realize and optimize the spectrum. From the perspective of packaging, excellent packaging technology is needed to achieve high optical quantum efficiency and high reliability products. At the same time, excellent optical design is also needed to maximize light distribution and intensity.

In terms of power supply, as the first listed company in the field of LED lighting drive in China, maoshuo power pointed out three thresholds in the field of LED plant lighting drive.

1. Technical threshold. Plant lighting drive is developing towards higher power. At present, the power supply power in the market has reached 1200W, which may be increased again in the future, which poses a great challenge to the high-power drive design and production capacity of new manufacturers.
2. Intelligent design threshold. Plants need different light in different growth stages. The control requirement of light is the requirement of intelligent control of power supply.
3. Market threshold. It is reported that both the product quality and the enterprise itself are facing the problem of customer trust and recognition. If there is no appropriate entry point, the customer will not rush to import a new manufacturer as a supplier.

Input output ratio terminal focus

Ledinside, optoelectronic research office of trendforce Jibang consulting, found that terminal growers have reached a high level of recognition and acceptance of LED plant lighting technology, and are more and more willing to use LED plant lighting. However, led plant lighting has a high initial investment, and the input-output ratio has become the main concern of terminal growers.

Tiandian optoelectronics pointed out that in the application scenario of plant lighting, the electricity charge accounts for the highest proportion of customer expenditure. Therefore, at present, the difficulty of promotion focuses on how to balance the contradiction between short-term cost increase and long-term benefit release.

Jingke electronics pointed out that led plant lighting has broad prospects. In addition to emerging products, traditional planting manufacturers will also use led to replace traditional lighting. However, the one-time investment of LED plant lighting is high and the effect period is long, which has become the main concern of farmers.

In addition, Jingke electronics also pointed out that at present, the main market of LED plant lighting is overseas, which is affected by many factors such as cost, planting area, crop maturity, local environment and so on. But at the same time, the domestic market is also developing gradually. In the future, with the progress of LED technology and people's unremitting pursuit of quality, the domestic market will be developed gradually.

Hongli Zhihui also expressed his views on the unbalanced development of plant lighting in domestic and foreign markets.

It is reported that plant lighting is developing towards specialization, efficiency and intelligence, but high-quality LED plant lighting manufacturers are mainly concentrated abroad, and the layout strength of domestic manufacturers is not very obvious. On the one hand, the domestic plant lighting industry is in the early stage of development, and the products are still mainly low-end products for export; On the other hand, there are some problems in domestic plant factories, such as low input-output ratio and expensive output products, which has also become the main obstacle for led enterprises to develop plant lighting.

In addition, the absence of industry standards is also a difficult problem to be solved in the promotion of plant lighting.

Lida believes that the establishment of plant lighting industry standards will play a very important role in the standardization of plant lighting industry and the guidance of technical direction, which can avoid enterprises going in the wrong direction and reduce the waste of social resources. In addition, the establishment of industry standards can also enhance the trust of end users in plant lighting products, so as to accelerate the use of plant lighting lamps in the downstream planting market.

Ruifeng optoelectronics also pointed out that plant lighting is a multi-disciplinary and comprehensive technical field, and the industry lacks unified standards. At the same time, compared with conventional lighting, plant lighting needs to be combined with the actual needs and use scenarios of customers, and the actual verification and introduction cycle of a reasonable and efficient scheme is also long.

There is no doubt that the establishment of plant lighting industry standards helps to promote the orderly development of the whole plant lighting field, but the establishment of industry standards can not be completed overnight.

Maoshuo power believes that it is difficult to formulate standards conducive to industrial development before the society has enough understanding of a new industry. The formulation of standards is a dynamic process, which needs to be formulated when the industry develops to a certain extent. Once the lag problem is found, it needs to be revised in time to keep it forward-looking.

Blocked in the short term and expected in the future

Food is the most important thing for the people. Food is an essential part of human survival and development. Led plant lighting solves the influence and limitation of climate, geography and space on plant growth, and can accelerate plant growth and reduce the use of chemicals in a scientific way, so as to achieve "food first". In addition, led plant lighting naturally has the attributes of environmental protection and energy saving. It is a very important link in smart agriculture with science and technology as the core.

It is worth noting that although led plant lighting has bright development prospects, its short-term development is constrained by both internal and external factors.

On the one hand, there are still many problems in LED plant lighting.

At present, the industry has insufficient understanding of the core growth factors of different plants. For example, the optimal demand of different crops for spectrum at different growth stages still needs to be further studied.

At the same time, it is not easy to integrate the leading intelligent control system into the existing lamps.

Lida pointed out that the leading advantage of single lamps is not the only dimension that customers pay attention to. The competition of LED plant lighting has changed from the competition of single lamps to the competition of double circuit of lamp integration system, which is a great challenge for traditional lamp manufacturers who have no experience in the field of intelligent control, and for lamp manufacturers with the advantage of intelligent control system, Is a very good opportunity.

Hongli Zhihui believes that plant lighting has a strong demand for intelligent regulation of light quality and light quantity. Therefore, adding intelligent control systems on a variety of monochrome spectra to realize time-sharing control and photosensitive control, and timely adjusting the output of light quality and light quantity according to the growth state of plants is bound to become the main trend of the development of plant lighting technology in the future.

Zhaochi semiconductor pointed out that the red light chip of plant lighting has high quality requirements. Different manufacturers have unique matching solutions in the design, extension and chip technology of red light plant lighting products. This is the core technology of each manufacturer, and has established closer ties in the process of appropriate and reasonable matching with downstream packaging and gradually improving the scheme. Led plant lighting naturally has the attributes of environmental protection and energy saving. In the future, the market game will be more intense, and technology precipitation and breakthrough will also be very important. In the future, the company will continue to deeply cultivate the field of plant lighting and overcome the technical and cost difficulties through the combination of automation, scale, informatization and technology standardization. This is also one of the main trends of plant lighting industry in the future.

Talent is also the short board of LED plant lighting. Ruifeng optoelectronics pointed out that environmental monitoring, light source sensing and control, nutrient solution monitoring and supply, plant growth monitoring and output crop production and marketing logistics all need their own intelligent control and monitoring systems, and the communication and integration between industries are closer. Therefore, intelligent agriculture urgently needs compound talents.

On the other hand, the soil of the external environment illuminated by led plants is not very fertile.

The same party believes that in the face of the global food crisis and the development of smart agriculture, the trend of plant lighting market will become normal development in the future, but in the short term, the policy orientation of the international market has a great impact on the plant lighting market.

Lida also pointed out that the homogenization of plant lighting products is serious, and there are many overseas customers, so it is difficult to get customers' attention, and the market competition is very fierce. At the same time, the overseas epidemic is still serious, and it is difficult for the company to approach customers to develop the market.

Fortunately, with the joint efforts of Zhongke San'an, Huacan optoelectronics, Qianzhao optoelectronics, zhaochi Co., Ltd., Guoxing optoelectronics, Ruifeng optoelectronics, tiandian optoelectronics, Hongli Zhihui, Lida, Xuyu optoelectronics, Jingke electronics, Tongfang optoelectronics, maoshuo power supply, Songsheng Co., Ltd., yingfeite and other plant lighting manufacturers, the problems existing in the plant lighting industry are being solved one by one.

Major manufacturers actively carry out systematic research and layout. While improving technical parameters such as LED light efficiency, we can better understand plant physiology and other professional knowledge through cross-border cooperation or the establishment of biological research laboratories, so as to better integrate intelligent control technology and promote the industrial development of plant lighting.

It is undeniable that led plant lighting technology can improve the quality and taste of crops while shortening the maturity of crops, so as to help terminal growers reduce production costs. Looking forward to the future, under the requirements of ensuring food safety, people will shorten the food supply chain through indoor planting, agricultural development and vertical farm investment, and the scale of the global plant lighting LED market will continue to rise.

At the same time, with the long-term introduction of LED lighting equipment by greenhouse planters and emerging vertical farm planters, and the cost of LED lamps is expected to decline, it can further enhance the willingness of more indoor planters to replace traditional products with LED lamps, which will become an important key to promote the growth of plant lighting LED market in the future.

Ledinside of the photoelectric Research Office of trendforce Jibang consulting believes that thanks to the promotion of national policies and the mass introduction of LED plant lighting equipment into the medical and entertainment marijuana planting market in North America, the global plant lighting LED market will show explosive growth in 2020, with an output value of US $301 million, an annual increase of 57%. This growth momentum will also continue until 2021. It is estimated that the output value will reach 399 million US dollars this year, with an annual increase of 33%.

Epilogue

With the traditional lighting business gradually approaching the ceiling, led plant lighting has become a new niche for enterprise development.

At present, led plant lighting is in its infancy, but we believe that driven by external factors such as population growth, insufficient cultivated land, uneven cultivated land, food safety, environmental pollution and climate change, as well as internal factors such as the further maturity of LED plant lighting technology and the further decline of cost, LED plant lighting will flourish and bring more health and benefits to all mankind Higher quality things.