An Ann Arbor-based start-up believes it has the developed the next generation of technology for grow lights.
Grow lights are large lights that are used for a number of purposes, ranging from providing artificial light for growing organic vegetables year round to medical marijuana. Those lights have traditionally used incandescent lights.
Michigrow's technology utilizes LED lights, which consume far less energy than incandescent bulbs and run much cooler. The use of LED lights and Michigrow's technology allows for not only more energy-efficient operations but helps accelerate the grow cycle of the plants it provides light for by altering its night-and-day biorhythm.
"Think of it as a factory that needs to be shut off 12 hours a day," says Jim Beyer, president of Michigrow. "If you can make the factory run 24 hours a day it is much more efficient."
Beyer works as a software engineer for his day job but has already begun selling some of the prototypes of his patent-pending technology. He acknowledges that selling his technology to medical marijuana growers would allow for most direct path for rapid start-up. However, he adds that Michigrow's has a number of different potential revenue stream, especially for people in traditional agriculture.
"It would allow people to do more of their own food growing in a more economical way," Beyer says.
Source: Jim Beyer, president of Michigrow
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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