How Dutch greenhouse horticulture is leading system innovation

Discussions surrounding climate change mitigation frequently focus on point-source carbon capture, replacing gas boilers with heat pumps, deploying electric vehicles, or installing wind turbines. However, achieving deep decarbonization across industrial sectors requires broader system innovation. A primary example of this systemic transformation is occurring in the Netherlands, where the greenhouse horticulture sector is restructuring its relationship with both carbon procurement and the national electricity grid.

The CO₂ supply vulnerability in Dutch greenhouses   

Dutch greenhouses produce a massive share of Europe's fresh food, but their high yields rely heavily on carbon enrichment; Injecting extra CO₂ into greenhouses boosts plant photosynthesis, increasing crop yields by roughly 30%.

Traditionally, growers have secured their required carbon through two primary fossil-based channels:

• Industrial byproducts delivery: CO₂ captured from heavy industries is transported as gas via pipeline networks (such as the OCAP infrastructure) or in liquid form by trucks to greenhouse sites. 

• On-site CHP installations: Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems burn natural gas to simultaneously generate heat, electricity, and CO₂.

Under these legacy frameworks, carbon utilization is a delayed emission: 60 to 80% is directly emitted into the atmosphere by open windows, while the rest is absorbed temporarily by plant biomass, and is ultimately released back into the atmosphere during crop lifecycle stages and consumption.

This traditional procurement model is encountering significant structural shifts. Under a sector agreement with the government, Dutch horticulture is committed to reducing fossil fuel consumption by 50% by 2030 and reaching 100% fossil-free production by 2040. Concurrently, industrial suppliers are avoiding (delayed) emissions by redirecting their point-source captured carbon toward permanent geological storage projects, such as the Porthos carbon capture and storage (CCS) initiative in the North Sea. This reduces the overall volume of commercial CO₂ available to growers.

Transitioning from linear provisioning to circular carbon management

To address the phase-out of fossil CO₂, Dutch growers are turning to Direct Air Capture (DAC) systems. Leading this CO₂ transition is Skytree, an Amsterdam-based company and spin-off from the European Space Agency (ESA), which is deploying modular DAC systems directly at greenhouse facilities. Skytree’s modular DAC units capture atmospheric CO₂ on site, establishing a localized and circular carbon loop. DAC decouples greenhouse production from heavy industrial activity and fossil fuel combustion. Since the carbon used for crop enrichment is harvested from the ambient air around us, its eventual release back into the atmosphere results in a net-neutral carbon cycle.

Integrating DAC into seasonal grid balancing and enabling negative emissions

Beyond carbon circularity, the integration of modular DAC hardware into greenhouses can create a pathway toward negative emissions while providing additional flexibility to the regional energy system. Rather than acting as static power loads, on-site DAC units can adjust their operation in response to seasonal variations in renewable electricity availability, greenhouse CO₂ demand, and carbon storage opportunities.

During summer, when higher daylight levels and crop growth increase greenhouse CO₂ demand, DAC systems can operate at higher capacity to supply atmospheric CO₂ directly to crops. These systems function as flexible demand-response assets by absorbing excess renewable energy during peak production periods. This stabilizes local power grids, mitigates negative energy pricing, and provides zero-fossil carbon at critical times for crops.

Conversely, during the winter season, greenhouse CO₂ demand is typically absent or much lower as lower daylight levels reduce crop activity and ventilation requirements. Rather than sitting idle, on-site DAC equipment can continue capturing carbon from the ambient air and feed it in reverse through existing pipeline infrastructure into regional geological storage sites like Porthos. This dual-mode operation transforms greenhouse facilities from agricultural production sites into active points of negative emissions.

This seasonal dual-use model allows the same DAC infrastructure to serve two complementary purposes: supplying fossil-free CO₂ for horticulture when crop demand is high, and delivering durable carbon removal when utilization demand is lower. In this way, greenhouse-based DAC can evolve from a circular CO₂ supply solution into a distributed platform for both energy flexibility and negative emissions.

Policy frameworks and capital allocation for scaled deployment

Scaling decentralized DAC technology and negative emissions infrastructure across high-tech horticultural regions requires coordinated financial and regulatory frameworks. While the Netherlands possesses strong institutional infrastructure, including collaborative public entities and advanced grower cooperatives, the capital requirements for scaling hardware-intensive climate technologies remain substantial.

Public funding mechanisms, such as the Dutch government's SDE++ (Stimulation of Sustainable Energy Production and Climate Transition) subsidy framework, serve as critical bridge financing. By reducing investment risk and improving the economics of first commercial projects, these subsidies enable early commercial deployments.

Policy frameworks that recognize and reward both functions can allow DAC assets to shift seasonally between CO₂ utilization and long-term carbon removal. Over time, combining deployment subsidies with suitable CDR incentives, carbon accounting standards, and access to transport and permanent storage infrastructure could create an additional revenue stream for growers and DAC operators. This would strengthen the business case for maintaining year-round operations and enable the horticultural sector to directly contribute to national and European climate targets through verifiable negative emissions.

Supporting these integrated systems goes beyond simply decarbonizing greenhouse CO₂ supply. It can help establish a scalable regional CDR ecosystem that enhances food security, optimizes the use of low-carbon energy and infrastructure, and transforms greenhouse clusters into potential distributed hubs for atmospheric carbon removal.