India is an agriculture-based country. The agricultural sector provides a livelihood to over 50% of India’s population. In fact, the sector contributes 18% to the country’s GDP. However, the agricultural sector needs proper irrigation facilities and other amenities to reap proper benefits. The major constraint in this sector is farmers’ dependency on pumps for irrigation. Most of the farmers use pumps some of which are connected to the grid while some pumps run on diesel and other fossil fuels. According to a study conducted by
KPMG, this sector consumes almost 20% of the installed power in India.
Another issue in this sector is related to the plight of farmers. Since some of the crops are seasonal, most of the farmers are deprived of regular source of income. Furthermore, farmers are not being able to earn anything from their dry/uncultivated land. Solar energy can be put to good use to address these critical issues of the
agriculture sector.
Solar energy is one of the most vital renewable sources of energy that can be utilized for various purposes. Solar energy is widely being adopted in residential, commercial and industrial sectors and it has huge potential to benefit the agriculture sector. So, with an endeavour to offer financial and water security to farmers, the Indian government has launched various schemes to promote the installation of
grid-connected solar power plants and
solar pumps.
The scheme is divided into three different components - installation of standalone solar pumps, solarisation of grid-connected pumps and commissioning of grid-connected solar power plants. Through this scheme, the government targets to add 25,750 MW of combined solar capacities (all three components) by the year 2022.
Components of the new scheme
The scheme has a total of three main components:
- Component A - 10,000 MW of Decentralized Ground-Mounted Grid-Connected Renewable Power Plants of 500 kW to 2 MW individual plant size to be commissioned by 2022.
- Component B - 17.50 lakh standalone solar powered pumps with capacity up to 7.5 HP to replace diesel-powered agricultural pumps.
- Component C - 10 lakh grid-connected agricultural pumps with up to 7.5 HP individual pump capacity to be solarised by 2022.
The government intends to execute components A and C of the scheme in a pilot mode till 31st December 2019 whereby commissioning of 1000 MW capacity of ground-mounted solar power plants and solarisation of 1 lakh grid-connected pumps would be completed. In the case of component B, the entire scheme would take place full-fledgedly.
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Component A and its implementation:
1000 MW of decentralized ground mounted grid-connected renewable power plant
Benefits
- It will offer a stable source of income to landowners for at least 25 years.
- In this way, farmers can even earn from their uncultivable land.
- A minimum installation height will ensure that farming activities can take place along with solar plants in case of cultivable lands.
- Through the scheme, sufficient solar power can be generated to power agriculture pumps and to fulfil other power requirements of the area.
- Transmission losses can be reduced as the decentralized power plants would be installed near substations and agricultural loads.
- Discoms can achieve RPO target through the scheme.
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Component B and its implementation:
17.50 lakh standalone solar pumps to be installed
Benefits
- The solar pumps can save a huge amount of cost that is spent on buying diesel.
- It provides a reliable source of irrigation to the farmers.
- It prevents pollution that is caused by diesel.
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Component C and its implementation:
Solarisation of 10 lakh grid-connected agricultural pumps
Benefits
- The farmers will receive a reliable source of power for irrigation.
- Farmers can feed surplus power to the grid and save both water and electricity.
- Farmers can get a secondary source of income by selling electricity to Discoms
- Discoms can meet their RPO targets.
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