Solarizing groundwater irrigation in India: a growing debate

Water in the Hindu Kush Himalaya

“…The critical links among groundwater, energy, and irrigation have been highlighted in a number of studies. The proliferation of electric pumps for extracting groundwater in India (Mukherji 2007;Shah 2009;Bassi 2017) and of diesel pumps in Pakistan (Siddiqi and Wescoat 2013) has led to an extensive increase in energy consumption for agricultural production in the plains. Policy instruments, such as power tariff reforms, have been identified as interventions that can simultaneously reduce power demand (thereby improving energy supply for non-farm power needs), improve agricultural productivity, promote equity, and allow for more sustainable use of groundwater in agriculture (Kumar et al 2013).…”

Solar pumps and South Asia’s energy-groundwater nexus: exploring implications and reimagining its future

“…In sum, the overall groundwater governance challenge of South Asia varies widely between GDZ and GAZ. In the former, policy makers are in search of instruments of groundwater demand management without having to take politically suicidal measures like metering grid connected tubewells and charging farmer consumption-linked commercial tariff for power consumed in irrigation (Kumar et al 2011, Bassi 2018. In contrast, in GAZ, the search is for interventions that can transform monopolistic irrigation service markets into pro-poor service markets that enables poor smallholders to use groundwater for productivityenhancing irrigation rather than mere life-saving one used sparingly to save a crop during dry spell (Shah et al 2009, Shah et al 2009, Kishore 2004.…”

“…But SIPs have two major downsides, one economic and one ecological. SIPs enjoy near-zero operating cost but currently require 10-12 times the capital investment compared to diesel or electric pumps (Bassi 2018). Without 70%-95% capital subsidy, SIPs would have few takers in India.…”

Solar energy farming as a development innovation for vulnerable water basins

“…Finally, the promotion of solar pumps in India was financed by high subsidies. These are criticised for several reasons such as missing links to sustainable practices in groundwater (Bassi 2016(Bassi , 2018; their pro-rata basis (Kishore, Shah, and Tewari 2014;Shah et al 2016) or the lack of net-metering of evacuated power (Shah, Verma, and Durga 2014). There is also a debate about the cost-benefit of SPSs around small-scale plants and high infrastructure costs for connecting farms to the grid (Bassi 2018).…”