In-House HPLC Lab in Commissioning at Solar Farm Thailand

Solar Farm Thailand is commissioning an in-house HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) lab at its indoor farm in Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani, north of Bangkok, to add a first-line cannabinoid potency screen alongside, not in place of, the independent third-party Certificate of Analysis (COA) on every batch.

What the in-house screen changes, and what it does not

The in-house screen is for faster internal feedback between harvest, drying and release, without waiting on an external laboratory queue.

It does not change the release document. Every batch leaving Solar Farm Thailand still ships with an independent third-party COA, and that COA remains the result licensed buyers rely on for potency, microbiological quality, heavy metals and pesticide screening.

While commissioning and method verification are under way, Solar Farm Thailand does not publish in-house HPLC figures and does not present them as release results. The lab is in commissioning; this article claims nothing beyond that.

What HPLC potency screening measures

HPLC separates the compounds in a flower extract and measures each against a standard of known concentration, producing a cannabinoid profile rather than a single number.

The key lines are THC and its acidic precursor THCA, plus CBD and CBDA. Dried flower holds most of its cannabinoids in the acidic forms, which heat converts to the neutral forms through decarboxylation. HPLC does not heat the sample the way gas chromatography does, so both forms are reported separately.

Total THC is therefore a calculation: THCA multiplied by 0.877, the standard factor for the mass lost in decarboxylation, plus THC. Total CBD follows the same rule.

What a first-line screen means in a GACP workflow

Under Good Agricultural and Collection Practice (GACP), quality comes from documented control of the growing process, not testing alone. A first-line screen is an internal check inside that process, meant to give the team:

• Feedback between harvest, drying and release, so a lot is checked at more than one point.
• Trend monitoring per room and per strain, so results can be compared cycle against cycle.
• Earlier detection of drift, so a change in a room or in drying shows up at the screen, not on the certificate.

Solar Farm Thailand cultivates in 22 rooms across 5,800 m² of indoor space under Thai GACP certification from MOPH/DTAM; read more about GACP cultivation standards at the farm.

What commissioning and method verification involve

This outline is general and says nothing about how far the Solar Farm Thailand lab has progressed on any step.

Instrument qualification confirms the system is installed correctly and performs to specification. Calibration standards build the curves the instrument reads against, and reference materials of documented content check that a known sample gives the expected answer.

Method verification asks whether the method is reliable on real flower in this lab. The key check is a split-sample comparison: one homogenised sample is divided between the third-party laboratory and the in-house instrument, and the results compared over a series of batches. Documented SOPs (written procedures) and staff training complete the picture.

Solar Farm Thailand is not claiming that any of these steps is complete.

Why the third-party COA stays the release document

The screen tells the cultivation team what is happening inside the farm. The COA tells a buyer or regulator what an independent laboratory measured on that batch.

Potency is only one part of the certificate. The COA also covers microbiological quality, heavy metals and pesticide residues, which an HPLC potency method does not address.

How buyers should use this information

Always ask for the third-party COA for any batch under discussion, and read the separate THC, THCA, CBD and CBDA lines rather than the total alone. If your quality process requires it, a confirmatory test on arrival can be checked against the same certificate.

Solar Farm Thailand does not publish in-house figures, so rely on the COA. To discuss batch documentation or licence verification, contact the wholesale desk.

Frequently asked questions

Has the Solar Farm Thailand HPLC lab finished commissioning?

No. The lab is in commissioning, and Solar Farm Thailand does not publish in-house HPLC results or present them as release results.

Which document should I rely on for potency?

The independent third-party Certificate of Analysis for that batch. Every batch ships with one, and it remains the release document.

What does an HPLC potency screen measure?

The cannabinoid profile of a sample: separate values for THC, THCA, CBD and CBDA, plus total THC and total CBD calculated from them.

Will the in-house lab replace third-party testing?

No. It is intended as a first-line internal screen alongside the third-party COA, which still covers potency, microbiological quality, heavy metals and pesticides.