Application of Solar Water Pump in Agriculture

When you hear solar energy, The first thing that comes to mind is solar panels placed on roofs for commercial or residential use. However, solar energy has another important function - extracting and transporting water to increase productivity. 

This especially applies to sunny countries like Australia and most of Africa, where the main industry is agriculture. Still, their productivity suffers because their fields are not irrigated enough. However, with solar water pumps, they can double or even triple their profits. These economic gains can improve the lives of many farming communities.

Solar water pumps are used to pump water from ponds, rivers, boreholes, or other water sources.

Photovoltaic systems for solar power generation are scalable, with capacities ranging from a few watts for applications such as automatic farm gates or timers to hundreds of kilowatts for homesteads and farm sheds.

Multiple distributed photovoltaic systems can be deployed at pumping stations, rather than large centralized systems, solar pumping systems are best suited for pumping operations such as pumping water from a well, or transporting water from a dam to a storage tank, where the pump is used throughout the day is running continuously most of the time.

Farms that need to pump water at night are less suitable for solar pumps, as storage solutions such as batteries and storage tanks add to the cost of the system. Although these energy storage solutions can be expensive, they can improve the utilization of photovoltaic systems. Depending on usage, the stored water can be gravity fed when there is not enough sunlight to power the solar pump, further reducing diesel consumption.

For all agricultural needs, the best alternative is solar power. Modern, well-designed solar power systems can provide the required energy. Solar power generation systems have been tested and proven worldwide, cost-effective and reliable, and have been in increasing the level of agricultural productivity.

There are certain criteria you should follow to choose where to install your solar panels and pumps.

When installing the solar panel, it should be installed in an area without shade, dust, dirt, and bird droppings with low incidence, which can provide unrestricted space for tracking movement, and the surface of the installation panel should be flat. Panels should be easy to clean and should be close to pumps and water sources.

The water pump should be installed near the solar panels, and in the area to be irrigated, in the case of multiple water sources, the water source with the highest water table should be selected to install the water pump.

The capacity of a solar pump to cover several acres depends mainly on the type of irrigation and the water table.

About a 2 hp pump can satisfy about 2 acres often, and a 7.5 hp pump can satisfy 10 acres often.

The cost of solar panels is likely to continue to fall, making solar power economically viable and competitive with other energy sources.

Solar pumps are immune to fluctuating fuel prices and unreliable and expensive fuel supplies.

Pumping costs will decrease in the long run. If the system is being modernized for pressurized irrigation, the increase in energy costs can be offset by solar energy.

Due to constant access to water (additional planting seasons, diversification of planting patterns, higher-value crops), solar water pumps have great potential to increase agricultural productivity and income. Solar pumps can be used more efficiently when combined with drip irrigation or other water-saving irrigation techniques.

Solar water pumps have the potential to increase income diversification due to the multiple uses of energy (e.g. grid feeding, lighting, cooling) and water (e.g. livestock watering, domestic use).

The above introduces the advantages of solar water pumps in agriculture. If you also plan to purchase solar water pumps, please contact us.

TPON is a professional solar water pump manufacturer, every month, we export at least 15500 solar water pumps all over the world, which have been well received by countless buyers. TPON solar well pumps never stop the steps of improving and innovating our solar pumps to meet different market demands.