Nieuw glas op de kas

A greenhouse cover in Dutch greenhouse horticulture protects the crop against weather influences that are increasingly extreme and creates an energy-efficient greenhouse climate. This report provides a global overview of the feasibility of new technologies in the field of transparent insulation and laminates for greenhouse application for Dutch greenhouse horticulture. The focus was on glass only, specifically laminated glass, vacuum glass and developments in the field of transparent insulation in order to achieve a highly transparent, energy-efficient but also hail and wind resistant cover. The most important bottlenecks are the fact that when one property is improved, others worsen and the fact that research often focus on sectors where the room for investment is much higher than in greenhouse horticulture. Nevertheless, the need for new greenhouse covering materials is increasing, due to the transition to a higher energy efficiency under more extreme weather. With this, re-examining of promising innovations from other industries is an ongoing process.