As a toddler Sjors carried the tool box, now he has an innovative climate machine

The greeting is warm when Sjors enters the bulb company of bulb grower Niels Kreuk from Andijk.

because Sjors Wagenaar is anything but a stranger to the bulb company of bulb grower Niels Kreuk from Andijk. “The Wagenaar family has been at home here for 25 years,” says Kreuk, referring to the company of Sjors Wagenaar’s father. At Wagenaar Koeltechniek, from father Cor, Sjors developed his love for installation technology. “At first I only carried the tool box. Later I started working there as a mechanic.”

Practice and theory

During his study Energy & Process Engineering in Delft, practice and theory came together. And now there has been his company Wagenaar Refrigeration for some time. Together with colleagues from Green Simplicity, he launched a new heat pump for the agricultural sector. “It is a climate system, fully electric. One that can control the entire climate in a greenhouse. So cooling, heating and dehumidifying. There was nothing like that before.”

Dehumidification is the primary purpose of the system, says Sjors. “Plants growing in a greenhouse evaporate water. That water has to be drained away. Previously, the heater was turned on and the windows opened. With this system, the moisture is converted into heat, so all energy remains in the greenhouse. This already ensures an energy saving of 50 percent. In addition, he has added a cooling and heating function, which allows us to maintain the temperature.”

In a year and a half, more than 30 units have already been installed at companies in the greenhouse horticulture sector, such as bulb grower Niels Kreuk in Andijk. “Especially in the West Friesland region. This ensures that we can adapt and improve quickly, because you are always close by. With those 30 devices, we will save more than a million cubic meters of gas this year alone.”

Ambition

The ambition splashes from Sjors. “We are now mainly active in tulip greenhouses, but we are expanding to lettuce and strawberry greenhouses. One of the new markets is indoor growing and vertical farming. Realizing new forms of food production, with minimal energy input. This climate machine is perfect for that. Applications for this are already pending from Portugal, Israel, Australia. That really goes all over the world and we are now going to come up with a strategy for this. So there’s a lot going on in the background.”

Last week Sjors was presented with a bunch of flowers by Medemblik alderman Harry Nederpelt, when his climate system was proclaimed ‘most sustainable innovation’. “Very nice, a bit of local honour. We’ve made a bit of sustainability in West Friesland and that is apparently being seen. It’s the crowning glory of our work in recent years.”