News » 13.10.2026 - Climate demand rises as North American growers weigh investment decisions

Increasing summer temperatures are driving demand for greenhouse cooling systems in North America, but economic uncertainty is causing reluctance. Alexander Eugen of Lubing Greentec says the company is seeing strong interest in climate systems, both from new greenhouse projects and growers upgrading existing facilities. "Especially in the last couple of years, the weather has been getting hotter in summer. With more weeks being very hot every year, growers feel the need to cool the greenhouse to take care of the crops."

Torben Michaelis , Jan-Gerrit Terlou, Andreas Hagemeijer, Taylor and Alexander Eugen from Lubing / BarkuTorben Michaelis , Jan-Gerrit Terlou, Andreas Hagemeijer, Taylor and Alexander Eugen from Lubing / Barku at Greentech Amsterdam 2026

Greenhouse climate control
Among Lubing's broad offering are several systems for greenhouse climate control. The company's climate systems are used in both new construction projects and retrofit applications, with the latter becoming increasingly relevant as growers look for ways to adapt existing facilities to hotter conditions.

Alexander says growers are increasingly adding active cooling to existing greenhouses originally designed around natural ventilation. Solutions include high-pressure fogging for humidification and cooling, and pad-and-fan systems for evaporative cooling.

A notable part of the Lubing offering is its patented plastic cooling pad. According to Alexander, the polypropylene pads are considerably lighter than paper pads and are designed to maintain similar cooling efficiency while offering a longer service life. The pad's patented lattice structure also affects its performance over time.
"Our patented plastic pads have an efficiency of over 70% in the beginning, with a very low pressure loss of about 10 Pascal." Alexander compares this with pressure losses of around 25 to 30 Pascal or more for paper and some other plastic pads. A lower pressure drop creates less resistance to airflow, which means less fan capacity is required to move the same amount of air through the system. "While the efficiency of paper pads can decline as they age, deposits that form on the lattice of our GreenTec pads can increase the exchange surface area and improve their efficiency."

While growers recognize the need to invest, economic conditions are making the timing of those investments less certain, resulting in a year that is "not the best," so to say. "We get many requests, and we really notice growers want to invest, but they are not sure about the interest rates, prices, and all the insecurities," Alexander explains, adding that several growers have decided to postpone their investments until next year. "This allows them more time to assess the economic situation. The need to improve production efficiency remains, as does the pressure of warm summers."

This is not just the case in the North American market. As Lubing is active across the globe, the company is also seeing an increase in demand for climate systems in Europe. The heat waves of 2026 have urged growers to find an answer to more extreme climate conditions. He mentions that the increase in demand is substantial enough to affect delivery times. "We understand growers putting their plans on hold, as there are many insecurities, but planning also becomes essential now that there's growing demand for the climate systems."

Lubing combines production at its headquarters in Germany with local production in the United States, including plastic manufacturing and sheet metal production, the company itself can mitigate some of the uncertainties around tariffs and shipping prices. "We combine local production at our US subsidiary with imports from Germany. Some components are critical to our systems, and we can only ship them out. But what can be produced locally, is produced locally."
 

Source: www.floraldaily.com

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