4Evergreen Terneuzen

Location:

Westdorpe, The Netherlands

Crop:

Bell peppers

Surface:

141.000 m²

Type of installation:

irrigation and electrical installation

Realized:

2018

The final touches of the most recent expansion of 4Evergreen Terneuzen in Westdorpe have been made in December 2018. Phase 3 is the second new greenhouse of this location, consisting of 4 phases. The location covers in total 54 hectares.

The ambition of the brothers Grootscholte caused the search for a suitable location for the expansion of their company in 2012. Terneuzen was on top of their list, considering the rising energy costs. At the time, several growers had settled in Terneuzen, using the waste heat and waste CO2 from the factory of YARA. In December 2013, 4Evergreen bought an existing greenhouse in Terneuzen with the possibility and space for the expansion of 3 new greenhouses.

The new greenhouse

Five years later only phase 4 is still something for the future. In addition to the existing greenhouse, a new greenhouse was built and put in operation in 2016. Phase 3 was built this and all the preparations for phase 4 have been made. Dennis Grootscholte: "Our priority is to have everything up and running before we will continue with the next phase, but our expectation is to finish the complete project by 2020."

Dennis Grootscholte of 4Evergreen, says that every phase on this location is almost a copy of the previous one. Despite the fact that cultivating in a new greenhouse is always a challenge, no big adjustments have been made between the different phases. The biggest challenge in this new greenhouse is to manage the input of light, almost everything in the greenhouse is white and the glass Grootscholte has chosen lets through a lot of sunlight. An interesting fact is that the greenhouse of phase 2 is rotated 90 degrees compared to greenhouse 1. "It made sense logistically, but it is also decisive for your cultivation."

Sustainable cultivation is paramount at 4Evergeen. They make use of waste heat and waste CO2 from Yara, but this also reflects in the installations delivered and installed by Stolze; when possible, a sustainable solution is chosen. 'Rather a large size pipe with a smaller pump than vice versa.' according to Dennis.

Installations

Stolze provided the electrical and irrigation installation on this site, the irrigation room belonging to phase 3 and 4 is already prepared for phase 4, installations such as the water tanks are installed and underground piping is placed. Only the specific installations such as drip irrigation units are not included in these preparations.

The company makes use of 2 water reservoirs of 85000 cubic meters each. One used for greenhouse 1 and 2, the other one for greenhouse 3 and 4. A pump installation has been placed in order to distribute the water between these 2 outside placed water reservoirs. This is necessary because the surface of each greenhouse is different, with this installation a good distribution of water can take place.

If there is a shortage of collected water and the pumping between the two locations is insufficient, they can use the soil drain on the site at 4Evergreen. The water, which is in the ground, is reasonably clean and can be a useful extra source in drier periods. This year for the first time a test was done with the soil drain and after a few small adjustments, this method is ready to be used in the future.