Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, United States.
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Raipur, Chhattisgarh 492010, India.
Environ Sci Technol. 2023 Sep 26;57(38):14173-14181. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.3c02378. Epub 2023 Sep 12.
India seeks to deploy millions of solar water pumps to farmers who often lack access to electricity or face an unreliable power supply. Improving the use of this technology can bolster sustainable agriculture and expand clean energy services. We investigate farm-level impacts and opportunities with primary survey data ( = 292 farmers) and a large real-time pump operational data set ( = 1106 pumps). By modeling the potential solar generation of off-grid solar water pumps, we estimate 300-400 kWh/month of unutilized solar energy per pumping system, representing up to 95% of potential generation. While farmers report increased revenues and ease of pump operation, unsolved challenges concerning the lack of panel cleaning and tracking remain. Pump operational data show pump usage in the summer and monsoon seasons and an expansion of irrigation to grow crops in the winter. Relative to emissions associated with the use of diesel pumps, solar pumps that are highly utilized reduced life cycle CO-eq emissions by 93% on average, while the pumping systems with the lowest use result in a net increase of 26% relative to the diesel alternatives. Based on observed usage rates, approximately 70% of pumps had positive environmental benefits. The high share of unutilized solar energy provides a significant opportunity to use the energy for nonpumping purposes.
印度正试图向那些经常缺乏电力或面临不可靠电力供应的农民部署数百万台太阳能水泵。改善这种技术的使用可以促进可持续农业和扩大清洁能源服务。我们通过主要调查数据（= 292 位农民）和大型实时水泵运行数据集（= 1106 台水泵）来研究农场层面的影响和机遇。通过对离网太阳能水泵的潜在太阳能发电量进行建模，我们估计每个泵送系统每月有 300-400 千瓦时的未利用太阳能，占潜在发电量的 95%。尽管农民报告说收入增加且操作方便，但缺乏面板清洁和跟踪的问题仍然没有得到解决。水泵运行数据显示，夏季和季风季节的水泵使用率较高，冬季还扩大了灌溉面积以种植作物。与使用柴油水泵相关的排放相比，太阳能水泵的平均生命周期 CO-eq 排放量减少了 93%，而使用量最低的泵送系统相对于柴油替代品的排放量则增加了 26%。根据观察到的使用率，大约 70%的水泵具有积极的环境效益。大量未被利用的太阳能为非泵送用途提供了一个利用太阳能的重要机会。
