Solar irrigation pumps can help India reach 38% of its green energy target

A switch from conventional diesel- and electric-powered irrigation pumps to solar-powered ones can help the country achieve 38 per cent of its envisaged 175 Gw renewable energy target by 2022. 

The shift to solar-powered irrigation pumps can also save enormous sums of money and generate additional income for farmers, says a report by the US-based Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis (IEEFA). 

The IEEFA report, titled 'India: Vast Potential in Solar-Powered Irrigation', notes that the idea of replacing some 30 million grid-attached or diesel pumps with solar pumps is gaining traction but the pace of deployment is slow.

The Government of India's Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthan Mahaabhiyan (KUSUM) scheme and the Gujarat government's Suryashakti Kisan Yojana (SKY) are steps in the right direction for solar-powered irrigation initiatives. The KUSUM scheme mandates deployment of 2.75 million solar pumps in the first phase of its implementation. The initiative would produce an additional 4 Gw of installed solar power, thus giving a material boost to the country's renewable energy deployments. 

"The government, to its credit, is encouraging farmers to install stand-alone, solar-powered, off-grid pumps to not only meet their irrigation needs but also to provide an extra income source from selling surplus power to distribution companies (discoms)," wrote Vibhuti Garg, an IEEFA energy economist and the author of the report. 

"Considering the declining trend in prices of solar modules combined with economies of scale, IEEFA sees the all-in cost of solar-powered irrigation as a strong argument for reducing reliance on the current expensive government-subsidised model. The strategy also stands to give a strong push to the government's 'Make in India' programme by stimulating domestic solar-pump manufacturing," Garg added.

About 70 per cent of the country's households are still dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. Successful farming is driven by irrigation facilities. Only 48 per cent of the country's net sown area is irrigated. The rest is dependent on the vagaries of nature. Demand for sustainable irrigation far exceeds the current available pumping capacity and despite the government's announcement of various initiatives to boost deployment of solar irrigation pumps, the uptake has been slow. A robust national solar irrigation programme could successfully contribute to the country reaching its goal of 100 Gw of installed solar power capacity by 2022. 

The upfront cost of solar pumps, the heavily subsidised supply of electricity to the rural sector, poor after-installation maintenance support and lack of awareness on benefits of solar power have dissuaded most farmers to shift from the conventional irrigation mode. However, solar-powered irrigation offers huge economic and environmental benefits and schemes like KUSUM and SKY are pointers to the attitudinal shift.  

A significant up-scaling of solar-power irrigation would be broadly beneficial and specifically useful in providing distributed/end-of-grid generation, reducing the need for heavily subsidised electricity to the agricultural sector, and aligning solar generation with water irrigation time of use, said Garg.