Fifth Season celebrates full activation of on-site microgrid at its Braddock indoor farming facility

Fifth Season, a Pittsburgh-based vertical farming startup, celebrated the full activation of its on-site microgrid at its indoor farming location in Braddock on Wednesday.

Hundreds of solar panels scattered across the building's roof and a nearby natural gas generator are now capable of supplying 1,360 kilowatts of electricity at peak usage, which will be funneled into a 250-kilowatt battery that has the potential to keep the facility running for up to three full days in the event of a total blackout from a utility provider.

"It solves a few major issues that are very pertinent," Austin Lawrence, one of three co-founders of Fifth Season, said. "Really what we operate here, in my opinion, is a life support system for leafy greens, and downtime is very critical to avoid for our operation. In the inevitable situation where we do lose power due to forces outside of our control, it's nice to know that we have on-site solutions available to us where we can keep on chugging along, keep the business operating, keep our product fresh and safe for consumption and keep the business running."

But that's not the only objective for the microgrid.

Fifth Season is also looking forward to enjoying the benefits of shaving off its own electricity usage from a utility provider during peak times by tapping into the power generated from its on-site plant.

The startup partnered with Scale Microgrid Solutions for the initial creation of its microgrid in 2020. With the last of the solar panels now installed, the startup is looking forward to a smaller utility bill in the months to come.

The 250-kilowatt battery is where energy is stored while it is not being used by the 60,000-square-foot facility. | Nate Doughty

It's also hoping to take the lessons learned from the installation of the microgrid at its Braddock farm and incorporate them directly into the build-out of its Columbus, Ohio, facility, which will be 180,000 square feet upon its completion in 2023, or about three times larger than the Braddock farm.

"Having this type of cogeneration — solar and battery on-site — is really just the beginning," Grant Vandenbussche, chief category officer at Fifth Season, said. "There's a lot of opportunity for us to capture wasted energy and turn that into more food. And Austin and the team are actively working very hard at deploying even more advanced strategies in the Columbus facility."

Fifth Season churns out about 500,000 pounds of leafy greens annually at its Braddock facility, shipping fresh spinach and lettuce varieties to hundreds of stores owned by retail customers like Giant Eagle Inc. and The Kroger Co., among others. It does so with a team of on-site workers — about 20 people or so per shift and that includes security, cleaning staff and maintenance teams among the few line workers who remain. The company relies heavily on automation and robotics for the planting, growing, harvesting and packaging of its produce, which takes anywhere from 14 days to 28 days to grow from start to finish.

The startup has raised $75 million in funding so far. Its two other co-founders are brothers Austin Webb, CEO, and Brac Webb, chief operating officer. Fifth Season has previously said it expects to scale up to more than 100 full-time employees by early 2023, though its LinkedIn page boasts 105 workers as of September 2022.