How Are Greenhouse Growers Coping with Rising Energy Costs?

A 2003 survey on benchmark costs found energy costs including heating fuel, fuel for vehicles, and electricity were 5.3% of sales.  Heating costs were 4.9% or $0.82 per square foot per year.  By the fall of 2008, heating oil costs (the most common fuel used for heating New Jersey greenhouses) have almost tripled. Other energy costs had gone up too.  A 2003 mail-in survey of the New Jersey greenhouse industry found that 61% of respondents were considering energy saving technologies, 17% were considering alternative energy sources, and 10% were considering co-generation. Energy costs in 2008 were fluctuating, but mostly increasing rapidly. We surveyed growers to understand how they were coping with ever increasing energy costs.  One option some growers can consider is to produce their own biofuels. We wanted to find out how many growers had enough land to consider this option.  We also want to know how growers are handling the fuel cost increases.  A total of 397 surveys containing a list of 21 questions related to energy use were mailed to greenhouse growers in the state of New Jersey in September 2008. A total of 56 (a 14% return-rate) usable surveys were returned. Oil, propane, and natural gas were the most common types of heating fuels used either alone or in combination as their primary heating source by the respondents. While only 4% of respondents have adopted alternative energy, 45% of them are investigating new methods of energy use, storage, and generation. Some of the alternative energy uses include biomass (wood, corn, switch grass, etc.), co-firing (coal and biomass), solar, wind, electric, geothermal, and double energy curtains. Survey respondents do not feel that fuel surcharges are the answer in dealing with increasing fuel costs, and nine percent of respondents feel they have lost customers from charging a fuel surcharge. Sixty-six percent think fuel surcharges are bad for business.  While eighty-four percent of the respondents indicated that their vendors were charging a fuel surcharge, twenty-three percent of respondents had asked their vendors to waive the fuel surcharge, and 13% have switched vendors because of fuel surcharges. Only twenty-three percent of respondents were charging their customers a fuel surcharge, thirteen percent had customers who have asked them to waive the fuel surcharge, and 25% would consider waiving fuel surcharges in the future.