Redefining Sustainable Greenhouse Technology of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Sun
Sunlight is the beginning of everything we do, from harvesting its energy to run our solar energy systems to providing the light needed to produce our high quality produce.

Sea water
We draw seawater from the nearby Spencer Gulf to provide water for our evaporative cooling systems and to feed out desalination plan.

Solar energy systems
Our Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) system reduces our reliance on fossil fuels by producing heat, electricity and water for our greenhouse use.

Electricity
Steam generated from the CSP is fed into a steam turbine to provide electricity needed to power critical equipment in our greenhouses.

Desalination
Using heat from the CSP and seawater drawn from the Spencer Gulf, our Multi Effect Distillation system produces freshwater to irrigate our crops.

Fresh water
Freshwater produced on site and supplemented with town water is combined with nutrients to irrigate our crops.

Greenhouses
Our best in class greenhouses provide the ideal growing environment to produce high quality fruit and provide barriers to pests and disease more prevalent in open field farming.

A Sundrop greenhouse turns seawater and sunlight into energy and water.

We then use sustainably sourced carbon dioxide and nutrients to maximise the growth of our crops.

Pure genius

Sundrop Farms desalination process produces freshwater that is pure and distilled, with no need for chemical treatment.

We use the sun for energy

At Sundrop Farms we use sunlight to cool, heat and run our growing environments, so we’re not adding to the world’s output of C02.

Keeping costs consistently low

We don’t use either volatile water and energy in our production processes. Instead we turn to abundant, renewable inputs like sea water and heat from the sun.

At Sundrop Farms there is only one season

The growing season! Our technology ensures optimal conditions for our plants to produce delicious tasting fruit and vegetables all year round.

A world-class 20 hectare greenhouse in Port Augusta, South Australia is now operational.

Operations in Australia began with the construction of a 0.2 hectare pilot facility opened in 2009. The pilot paved the way for the development and refinement of the technology that underpins the Sundrop approach, now more than 200,000m2.

Nothing genetically modified

At Sundrop it’s what doesn’t go into our fruit that makes the difference. We take great care in selecting naturally bred seeds from delicious varieties of fruit that are suitable for Australian tastes and growing conditions. Our high tech greenhouses provide natural barriers to pest and disease plus we use beneficials and natural products to manage against these threats. Our water, which we supplement through our own desalination process, is recycled to maximise the use of the nutrients within the water and minimise waste.