Cannabis Grow Facilities Consume 100 Times More Energy Than The Average Walmart

Indoor cannabis cultivation in the United States consumes more energy than all outdoor agriculture combined, primarily due to the need for specialized lighting, climate control and ventilation systems. This high energy demand is exacerbated by legal requirements mandating in-state production, which often leads to reliance on energy-intensive indoor facilities.

Despite the industry’s rapid growth, there has been limited focus on its environmental impact. A recent study undertaken by Evan Mills of the Energy and Resources Group of UC Berkeley, points out that indoor cultivation accounts for approximately two-thirds of U.S. marijuana production and is a major emitter of greenhouse gases. For instance, producing four pounds of cannabis in an indoor facility can consume as much electricity as an average American home uses in a year.

Indoor cultivation is also far more energy intensive than more familiar building types and manufacturing processes, says Mills. “For comparison, while a typical cannabis plant factory is similar in size to an average Walmart, it uses ∼100 times more energy. Energy use per unit floor area is ∼600 times that of conventional storage warehouses and ∼40 times that of energy-intensive hospitals. Energy use per unit weight is ∼200 times that of manufacturing best practices for aluminum, ∼2,200:1 for blast furnace steel, and ∼10,500:1 for Portland cement.”

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Greenwashing

Mills estimates that both legal and illegal marijuana cultivation operations in the U.S. consume about 596 petajoules of energy annually. "Consumers are led to believe that this is ‘nature's medicine' and that it's ‘green' in every sense of the word. There's lots of greenwashing."

Several electric utility companies are involved in supplying energy to indoor marijuana cultivation facilities. For example, Xcel Energy XEL, which operates in Colorado, has experienced significant load growth due to the cannabis industry.

Since March 2017, California’s PG&E PCG declared business customers eligible for service under an agricultural rate plan that included customers who grow cannabis outdoors and those who grow indoors in commercial greenhouses.

Both California and Colorado have had legal marijuana for over a decade and are major producers of indoor weed.

Final Word

Meanwhile, says Mills, a research gap and the industry’s ineligibility to benefit from federal incentives highlight opportunities for local action. Given the significant impact of cannabis consumption and product types on emissions, “it is high time for drug policy and environmental policy to be harmonized.”

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