AppHarvest

AppHarvest founder and chief executive officer, Jonathan Webb, was accompanied at the Global Entrepeneurship Summit 2019 by Deputy Prime Minister Carola Schouten of the Netherlands to announce that the company chose DALSEM, based in the Netherlands, to build its 60-hectare greenhouse in Morehead. An innovative agricultural start-up operation planned for the construction of a huge greenhouse in Rowan County in 2019 has announced several new developments related to the project.  

AppHarvest partners with DALSEM
"Ever since I founded AppHarvest, I have said time and again that the United States must learn from the Netherlands because it is the world leader in AgTech," Webb said. "Dalsem is the ideal partner to help build this industry in our region and to show that sustainable agriculture is not a future concept, but instead happens today. This is Farming Now." Schouten, who is the Dutch Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, announced the selection with Webb and Dalsem Managing Director Jan Pieter Dalsem at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, organized by the US Department of Foreign Affairs and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The event attracted 1200 entrepreneurs from more than 170 countries and 400 international investors.

Schouten welcomed the transformation of East Kentucky into a high-tech sustainable agricultural hub and improved access to fresh food. "This is a good example of how international cooperation can contribute to sustainable, circular food systems," Schouten said. Dalsem, based in the Netherlands, has 87 years of experience in horticulture and has completed nearly 1500 projects in 52 countries, AppHarvest said in a press release. Construction has already begun on AppHarvest's 2,762,063 square-foot controlled agricultural facility, which is being built as part of a $ 100 million deal with Equilibrium Capital. The structure will be one of the largest in the United States when it is opened in 2020.

The 25-hectare greenhouse will be equipped with a hybrid LED lighting system utilizing Signify’s Philips GreenPower LED toplighting compact and Agrolux high-pressure sodium lighting. The $15 million hybrid LED lighting system will be the largest US LED installation and the world’s largest LED installation for a single building. (Summary Press Release, CNHI Kentucky June 13, 2019)

The AppHarvest greenhouse project has gained a lot of press attention.