Solar water pumping systems are an ideal alternative to diesel generators for a number of reasons including low maintenance costs, environmentally friendly and have a longer life cycle.

These benefits were highlighted by Titus Koech, Technical Services Manager SSA at JinkoSolar, during an online discussion titled Solar-powered water solutions for sustainable agriculture in SSA.

Koech further underlined that solar water pumping solutions not only provide water for irrigation systems but for domestic water supply as well as water for livestock, especially for most of the arid and semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa.

Explaining the difference in the installations, he said the pumps can be deployed as either a standalone or hybrid system. However, each configuration will have its own advantages and also limitations, according to Koech.

“In the case of standalone, where PV is the only source of energy, this may result to low yield because pumping occurs only during the day. But for hybrid systems where there is more than one source of energy like PV plus electricity from the grid and diesel generator, the pump will operate for longer hours, even at night. It also comes with the advantages of higher OPEX and high initial costs. The choice of the configuration when it comes to liability depends on the requirements,” says Koech.

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Source: EsiAfrica