Vertical farming is often perceived as a futuristic, efficient and potentially revolutionary technology. All true-but only if one fully understands the real costs involved in building and operating a system.
In this article we take a detailed look at CAPEX (initial costs) and OPEX (recurring operating costs) of a vertical farming system, distinguishing between indispensable elements, invisible costs, and opportunities to reduce expenses through automation and advanced technologies.
The start-up costs of a vertical farming system can vary by +300% depending on design choices. The most relevant elements are:
Room set-up (insulation, flooring, washable coverings) o Isothermal cells or transportable structures for modular plants and rapid deployment
Certified electrical and plumbing systems
Any construction work
Typical incidence: 15-30% of total CAPEX.
Multilevel racks
Tanks, NFT channels, DWC modules or other systems
Main and secondary tanks.
Incidence: 15-25%.
LED installations represent one of the highest costs.
Tomato+ professional, variable-spectrum, liquid-cooled LEDs improve efficiency and reduce airflow complexity, providing uniformity on every plane.
Incidence: 20-30%.
Dehumidifiers
Ventilation and recirculation
Cooling and heating
This is often the most underestimated item, but it can amount to as much as 40 percent of CAPEX, especially in medium to large facilities.
This is where the most innovative part of modern indoor agriculture comes in:
Environmental sensors
Controllers, pumps, valves
AI-enabled vision systems (such as the cameras on Horto Professional)
Cloud platforms, telemetry and IoT infrastructure.
Incidence: 10-20%.
Mainly for professional installations:
HACCP certifications
Setup of cultivation protocols
Development of the first customized Growth Plans.
Incidence: 5-10%.
These are the costs that distinguish a sustainable system from one that cannot be replicated over time.
The sum of:
lighting
HVAC (the heaviest item)
pumps, sensors, controllers
In many traditional systems, HVAC accounts for up to 50% of total consumption.
With more efficient and less hot LEDs (such as those with Tomato+ liquid cooling), the energy required for thermal control is significantly reduced, even more than 50%,
Substrates or pods
Nutrient solution
Filters, membranes, sanitizing products
Automated systems and compostable materials (such as Tomato+ pods) reduce logistical waste and storage costs.
It is the real differentiator of new plants:
daily monitoring
planting, transplanting, harvesting
technical maintenance
With an AI-first system such as Tomato+, part of the tasks are automated, reducing the need for operating personnel by 30 to 60 percent.
In addition, the use of ready-made substrates/seeds, which require no transplanting or intermediate handling but only placement and harvesting, eliminates one of the most time-consuming activities.
By combining automation and ready-to-use materials, in-house work is reduced to a few hours per month, varying by crop type.
LED replacement
sensor calibration
HVAC controls
hardware repairs
Hardware build quality and cloud telemetry (remote diagnostics) reduce these items.
A vertical farm that produces for sale must consider:
packaging
transportation
last-mile logistics
Decentralized or on-site models (as in plug-and-grow solutions) eliminate this item almost entirely.
Vertical farming is not expensive because it is "futuristic"-it is expensive when three critical elements are underestimated:
Every LED produces heat.
If not managed, HVAC explodes in cost.
Liquid-cooled systems reduce the heat load by transferring heat to the outside in a controlled manner.
A manual system has OPEX too high to be scalable.
Without an AI system that optimizes cycles and consumption, operating costs remain high and unpredictable.
Any customization brings exponential costs.
Liquid-cooled, spectrum-controlled LEDs maintain more stable and uniform conditions on all floors.
continuous telemetry
dynamic Growth Plan adjustment via AI
remote diagnostics
Dramatically reduces labor and losses.
Producing at the point of consumption:
eliminates logistical OPEX
reduces waste
guarantees freshness 365 days
Exactly the Tomato+ model.
The correct answer is: it depends on the efficiency of the system, not the size of the facility.
A 50-square-meter plant with:
inefficient LEDs
oversized HVAC
no automation
manual labor
can cost more than a 200-square-meter installation with smart, optimized systems.
Vertical farming does not become sustainable by reducing costs-it becomes sustainable by increasing efficiency, automation, and operational predictability.
AI-first systems like Tomato+ demonstrate that when data becomes the heart of farming, OPEX is reduced and scalability becomes real.
Thank you for reading this article. Keep following us to discover new content on hydroponics, vertical farming, and smart agriculture.
Tomato+ Team