Gujarat: Equipment quality, enrolling farmers risks for KUSUM scheme

Quality of solar pumps and getting farmers on board are the two key risks for the success of the net-metered solar pumps, according to an analysis by Greenpeace India, Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI) and IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program.

The analysis, which was released at a conference earlier this week, showed that India could surpass its solar power target of 100 GW by 2022 if solar pumps were to replace traditional water pumps in farms. It said that while the 60 GW target for large-scale solar power projects is on track, the 40 GW target for roof-top solar is still to gather momentum, and as of March, only 2.4 GW roof-top capacity had been installed.

While talking about several benefits the solar pumps could provide, the analysis identified the quality of solar pumps and maintenance as a key potential risk for the success of net-metered solar pumps. Incidentally, the central government had recently launched KUSUM (Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthan Mahaabhiyan) scheme to promote solar irrigation pumps.

“One of the biggest concerns is quality of solar equipment (modules, inverters, structures and other components) deployed in the field. There are concerns that lowerquality systems will not last for ten years when stated life of a solar system is usually 20 plus years,” it said.

The analysis further said that since farm-top scheme in located in what harsher environments, the concerns were valid and needed to be addressed through stringent quality control. It recommended that payments to suppliers should be time-based and linked to generation.

The analysis identified getting farmers on board as another challenge. “Even if one farmer opts for the farm-top scheme, the distribution company would have to leave the grid on. This would change the manner in which power is managed. It may also reverse any incentive for remaining farmers to co-opt for the scheme since they would now be receiving uninterrupted daytime power via the grid,” it pointed out. It recommended that one way to solve this would be adopt a cooperative model, like the one adopted by a group of farmers in Dhundi village of Kheda.

The analysis was gung-ho on grid-connected solar pumps, saying they could not only provide access to quality power to farmers during day time, but also help in providing secondary income to them. Experts at Tuesday’s conference said the pumps could incentivise farmers become efficient energy and groundwater users, reducefarm power subsidy, improve finances of power utilities, and also lower carbon footprint of groundwater irrigation economy.

THE NITTY-GRITTY

• Analysis showed that India could surpass its solar power target of 100 GW by 2022 if solar pumps were to replace traditional water pumps in farms.  
   
• Quality of solar pumps and maintenance as a key potential risk for the success of net-metered solar pumps.