Why is ETFE often used for building greenhouses?

In 1997, the farm built in Changping District, Beijing began using ETFE film as the covering material for greenhouses, mainly for greenhouse seedling cultivation and greenhouse planting of Japanese netted melons, strawberries, colored sweet peppers, and other production.

ETFE is not only used in large buildings, such as the Bird's Nest and Aquarium Water Cube, which were the main venues of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, but also widely used in agriculture. In addition to animal husbandry and aquaculture, it can also be used for greenhouse flower, vegetable, and fruit cultivation.

There are two main types of greenhouses constructed with ETFE membrane structures, one is botanical gardens and zoos, and the other is agricultural greenhouses.

The Aarhus Botanical Garden in Aarhus, Denmark, uses an ETFE air pillow membrane structure to create a greenhouse, which is Denmark's national symbol greenhouse. The greenhouse optimizes its structure through advanced calculations to obtain the best angle of sunlight incidence in winter, while in summer, the opposite is true. A variety of tropical plants, trees, and flowers fill an oval greenhouse with a transparent dome.

The Eden Greenhouse in the UK was built in 2001 and was the largest ETFE membrane structure building in the world built using ETFE materials at that time. It gathers almost all plants from around the world, with over 4500 species and 134000 flowers, plants, and trees. The greenhouse is composed of four dome shaped buildings connected, covered with transparent membrane structural covers made of ETFE.

With the continuous penetration of ecological protection and sustainable development concepts, the protection of rare plants is also increasingly valued. The emergence of ETFE membrane botanical gardens has effectively protected the survival efficiency of rare plants.

In terms of agricultural greenhouses, ETFE film provides a greenhouse environment for agricultural planting, as it has the transmission of full band optical fibers, which is particularly beneficial for plant infrared absorption, offsetting the low-temperature radiation at night, and promoting crop growth. In Japan, almost all planting greenhouses use ETFE film.

Why is ETFE often used for building greenhouses?

Mainly due to good transparency. The transparency of ETFE film can reach over 94%, and it is as bright indoors as outdoors, providing good lighting conditions for plants. Full spectrum natural light is crucial for plant health, thereby maintaining plant safety and health, improving the yield and quality of vegetables and fruits, and reducing the use of water resources, reducing costs and improving efficiency.

In addition, it has an ultra long service life. The long-term weather resistance of ETFE materials (25-30 years) saves material costs and reduces labor costs, as it does not require recycling and significantly improves the yield of horticultural greenhouses by optimizing the indoor environment.

Agriculture is the foundation of a country and the foundation on which the people rely for survival. Greenhouses, as an important part of modern agriculture, can effectively protect internal plants while providing them with the sunlight and heat they need for growth. ETFE materials have unparalleled advantages over other materials.