DUTCH growers are giving new meaning to the term flower power by seeking to transform their greenhouses into electricity generators.

The Dutch flower industry, which is on a drive to make its members more green, says that the “ultimate idea” would be to operate greenhouses capable of producing energy, which could then be sold to the Netherlands’ public grid.

Peter van Ostaijen, director of the Wholesalers Organisation in the Netherlands, told The Times that government-sponsored trials of the new greenhouses, which began last week, were expected to show that surplus heat generated in the summer months could be conserved for the winter, or transformed into electricity using a dynamo.

The next step would be to link sufficient greenhouses to Holland’s electricity network, which would absorb the power generated in the summer months and allow the greenhouses to feed back off the network in the winter months. In this way, Mr van Ostaijen said, Holland’s flower industry would be able to generate more electricity than it uses.

The greenhouse scheme is part of a wider drive by the flower industry to cut its surging electricity and gas bills by a quarter and contribute to the fight against global warming.Mr van Ostaijen estimates that, on average, a farmer with three hectares of land could save €50,000 (£34,000) a year on his annual €200,000 energy bill. “The flower industry depends on gas for heating and on fuel for transport as most of the exports are done by truck. Energy prices are getting higher and higher, reducing our profits and competitiveness,” he said.

In order to be self-sufficient and remain competitive, the industry had no choice but to innovate, he said.

Dutch flower growers are also attempting to wean themselves off natural gas by experimenting with the use of biofuels to heat their greenhouses. Biofuels, which help to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, are also more economical than natural gas, which has doubled in price over the past few years.

Mr van Ostaijen yesterday forecast that, within the next three years, biofuels would also be used to power the flower trucks. Like ethanol, which is blended with gasoline to provide an alternative fuel, biofuels can be used pure, or blended with conventional fuels.

The Netherlands is the world’s biggest flower exporter, selling €5 billion worth of flora abroad each year. Exports have grown at a rate of 4 per cent over the past three to four years and are tipped to show an increase of up to 3 per cent this year. Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Russia are the country’s biggest markets.

The Aalsmeer flower auction accounts for half of all Dutch flower trade.

Last year Aalsmeer generated revenues of about €1.7 billion (£1.2 billion)

Aalsmeer sells 22 million flowers and plants per day at 13 auctions.

The Aalsmeer complex is 1 million square metres — equivalent to 200 football fields

The rose price worldwide is heavily influenced by what a rose is selling for at Aalsmeer. For that reason Aalsmeer is sometimes called the “Wall Street of flowers”