LEDs have helped transform lighting across the spectrum. Now, add indoor farming to the growing list of technologies that are undergoing change.

Advances in LED technology, combined with a number of other trends, are putting the horticultural lighting market on a growth trajectory.

“Horticulture Lighting Market” was published by Market Digits in November 2020. It provides an in-depth overview of the industry and global market segmentation.

The study finds that a number of factors are combining to create strong potential for growth over the next several years.

The consequences of climate change have a powerful effect. Rapid population growth and urbanization, combined with shrinking water supplies, have contributed to declining stocks of arable land per person.

Indoor, greenhouse and vertical farming are emerging as innovative solutions to this problem.

The public and private sector are responding. A rising number of government initiatives promoting the adoption of controlled environment agriculture practices, increasing funding to develop vertical farms and greenhouses, and ongoing legalization of cannabis cultivation are helping to drive up demand.

This trend is elevating the importance of indoor lighting techniques. Innovations in LED technology have made them a better alternative to other traditional forms of lighting that have been used, such as of high-pressure sodium, fluorescent, metal-halide and electric ballasts.

With the help of horticulture lighting, year-round crop production can be achieved in any region of the world, as opposed to one or two harvests per year in a traditional farming setting. This dramatically increases the yield of a typical agricultural plot. For example, one acre of indoor production of strawberries may produce a yield equivalent to 30 acres.

The report projects the horticultural lighting market to grow from $2.3 billion in 2020 to $6 billion by 2027, for a compound annual growth rate of 21.4% from 2020 to 2027.