The Power Plant that Grows: How North Garden Becomes a Net Energy Exporter

The biggest challenge for any high-tech, controlled environment agriculture is energy. Massive LED light arrays, climate control, and robotics all consume a tremendous amount of power. For most, this is a huge operational cost and a major roadblock to true sustainability.

At North Garden, we saw this problem not as a roadblock, but as a fundamental design flaw to be inverted. A system that produces biomass should not be a net energy consumer; it should be its own power source.

"This is a multi-disciplinary optimization problem for our world's most challenging issues. I didn't just want to build a better farm; I wanted to design a new type of power plant where the fuel source is sustainable abundance itself." — Josh Rogner, Founder

The Engine at the Heart of the Tower: Autothermal Pyrolysis

The engine of our energy independence is our integrated pyrolysis unit. Pyrolysis is a process where we heat biomass—fueled by a mix of the most optimal energy crops like Miscanthus, bamboo, and corn—to extreme temperatures in an oxygen-free environment.

Instead of burning, the biomass breaks down into valuable outputs, including a combustible fuel called syngas. We use a portion of this syngas to fuel the reactor itself in a self-powering, autothermal loop. The vast surplus of syngas and other biofuels are then used to generate electricity.

From Surplus Fuel to Global Solutions

The amount of electricity generated from our surplus fuel and integrated solar panels is far greater than the amount consumed by our lights and robotics. This surplus isn't just a bonus; it's a core product with multiple pathways:

• Selling clean electricity directly back to local power grids.
• Powering adjacent communities or industrial parks.
• Producing green hydrogen for fuel cells.
• Refining the output into advanced biofuels for shipping and aviation.

A single North Garden campus is projected to generate enough surplus electricity to power thousands of homes annually. It is a new paradigm of productive infrastructure, where the very act of growing our most vital resources creates the clean energy to power our future.