IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Riverside has started construction on the Northside Agricultural Innovation Center, reportedly the first project of its kind in the United States.
The facility at 900 Clark St., which broke ground March 4, will show how agricultural techniques that help crops resist climate change can increase crop yields, according to a statement on the city’s website.
When completed, the innovation center will include solar-powered greenhouses and solar panels positioned over farm fields. Those panels will absorb the sun’s energy, provide energy power to the center and return up to one megawatt of renewable energy to the grid annually.
The solar greenhouses will produce three times the yield of a typical farm, and use 80 percent less water, according to the the statement.
The center will be developed on eight acres. More than $10 million in state, local, and private funding has been secured to pay for the project, according to the statement.
