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LED makes grass on Bundesliga football pitches 'healthier'

LUX Magazine | posted:June 3, 2017-9:15

 

 

The RheinEnergieStadion, home of FC Köln, on match day. The club is using a mobile frame kitted out with colour tuned LED's to help the grass recover quickly from games.

The Greenkeeper LED system in action at the FC Köln ground. Coloured LEDs are used to help spur grass growth.

A futuristic wheeled lighting frame stacked with LEDs is being used to improve grass conditions at leading German football club, FC Köln (FC Cologne).

FC Köln which holds a prized place in the German Bundesliga is using a mobilised LED light structure that can move around the team’s training and match pitches beaming LED lighting onto the field.

The club hopes that the LEDs will speed up the turf's recovery after taking a bruising during a match.

It is currently being proved, in tests and trails taking place around the world, the plants and crops growing under LED light, tuned to a particular colour spectrum, has the ability not only to speed up growth, but improve the quality and of plants and crops. 

The areas in front of the goals see a disproportionate amount of traffic during a match and therefore need more treatment from the LED lighting.

The team has found that the system leads to grass filling in gaps damaged by play much more quickly than with the older system. Meanwhile, the LED sources are delivering energy savings at the same time.

Hennef, Germany-based Rhenac GreenTec AG developed the LED lighting system, named Greenkeeper, which uses Tina2 optics from Finland-based LEDiL Oy to deliver the required beam pattern.

The frame uses mainly red LEDs with a smaller number of blue LEDs to cover the well-documented chlorophyll absorption peaks of plants. Furthermore, the system includes an integrated infrared heating system to approximate ideal grass-growing conditions, as reported in LEDs Magazine.

FC Köln has found that the LED system delivers six times more light to the playing surface relative to the older HID system. And the mobility enables the pitch crew to move the system into areas that require extra attention.

• A revolution is happening in horticulture. It’s a seismic shift that will change fundamentally how we grow plants – and it’s all down to lighting. Lux's Horticulture Lighting Conference USA will take place in Denver on 17 October 2017. To find out more information and to register to attend  please click here.