Design and development of a low-cost and energy-efficient container farm for leafy greens

Plant Factories with Artificial Lighting (PFALs) are crucial for year-round, climate-resilient urban agriculture, addressing food security and sustainability challenges. However, the high construction costs and energy demands limit its wide application. In this work, we design and tested a low-cost and energy efficient container farm, through mobile racks with reflective materials, an adaptive environmental control system, and an IoT framework (RS485, Modbus RTU) for automated operation, costing $ 900 m −2 in terms of building area (at a construction cost of $ 12,500 for a 14.09 m 2 of building area). This container farm achieves efficient use of light, heat, and water, while providing photoperiod-synchronized environmental control to support leafy greens cultivation. The measured yield over a 50-day trial produced 95 kg of Frillice lettuce across 15.56 m 2 of cultivation area with an energy consumption of 43 kWh·day −1 (72 % LEDs, 14 % HVAC, 14 % other) and demonstrated 11.4 L·day −1 water recovery via HVAC condensate (measured during seedling phase only). Our works provide a scalable, cost-effective approach for PFAL deployment, opening up possibilities for sustainable urban food production.