Division of Agricultural Economics, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi-110012
Online published on 5 December, 2018.
The achievement of affordable and clean energy is one of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The role of renewable energy in agriculture becoming increasingly important in the current situation of global climatic change, volatile crude oil prices and limited amount of fossil fuels, to meet the growing energy demand. Recently, solar photovoltaic system has become attractive and affordable for pumping irrigation water in locations due to its long life and rapid decline in cost. The solar-powered irrigation system is one of the best options which do not require expensive maintenance and does not emit green-house gases as compared to that of diesel or propane-based water pumping systems. The Government of India is also promoting solar power as major energy source for the country with an aim to generate 100 GW of solar power by 2022. In this paper, we analyzed the technical and economic feasibility of solar powered irrigation system with that of diesel-powered system using field data from Rajasthan with life-cycle cost analysis approach. The analysis revealed that even though the capital investment is 2–3 times higher in solar powered irrigation pumps, operation & maintenance and replacement costs are far below than that of diesel. Besides, the solar water pumps combined with drip irrigation system enabled an efficient utilization of the water for irrigation in the region.
