Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering and Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society announced the results of a unique independent study on energy efficiency in the cannabis industry.

The study was funded by the Coalition for Sustainable Cannabis and supported by Rocky Mountain Institute and experienced civil engineers.

These results were based on data collected by MariMed Inc. MRMDa MA-based multi-state cannabis operator and Maryland based Cult, a seed-to-sale company that offers indoor and outdoor marijuana and supplies.

A team of six experienced engineering students conducted the research through the Cook Engineering Design Center at Thayer over a six-month period during the 2021-22 academic year, taking a holistic systems approach to meet the needs of crops and growers by focusing on yield per unit of energy, costs and carbon emissions .

“This study provides an independent, fact-based analysis of the tremendous potential for the cannabis industry to reduce both capital and operational costs while improving key metrics such as grams of product per kilowatt-hour of energy and grams of product per gram of CO2 emissions.” said dr stephen doig, Senior Research and Strategy Advisor at the Irving Institute.

Research: analysis and methodology

The research provided regulators and industry operators with important insights into how the cannabis industry can meet climate, grid and energy goals while improving business operations and cost targets. The research analysis also showed an additional energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction potential of over 50% after installing LED lighting, reducing the impact on the power grid and new green cannabis standards.

“The students found that operators using LED lights can reduce energy consumption by 50%, with even greater savings for those using HPS systems. Overall, the indoor cannabis industry is likely to have even greater savings available, as the sparse data available suggests that industry-wide energy use…