Coimbatore: High upfront investment cost for procurement of solar pumps are a major deterrent for farmers and general public to adopt them. Upfront costs go up to ten times more in many cases to install solar pump sets when compared with electric motor pumps.
Coimbatore: High upfront investment cost for procurement of solar pumps are a major deterrent for farmers and general public to adopt them. Upfront costs go up to ten times more in many cases to install solar pump sets when compared with electric motor pumps.
Renewable Energy sector plays a vital role in fulfilling the increasing electricity demands across the nation. Renewable Energy has many advantages such as positive effects on the environment, and less residue.
Considering the importance, both state and the central governments are showing more interest in implementing various schemes. At present the overall installed capacity in Solar power sector across the country is 20,000 MW, which includes 3,500 MW in Tamil nadu.
Central government has fixed target in increasing the total installed capacity of Solar power generation across the nation to 1,00,000 MW by 2022.
Implementing Solar pump sets is also one of the initiatives needed to be implemented. But huge investment cost needed for installation makes farmers and public of various sectors not to show interest in the solar pump sets installation.
The Southern India Engineering Manufacturers Association (SIEMA) President, K.V. Karthik said, "Solar pump set is a very good choice. But at present huge investment cost of ten times more is pushing people away. Unlike the normal Electric pumps, more work is needed for installing solar pumps such as solar panels, control box, seperate infrastructure to protect it from heavy winds and various other things.
At present a 5 HP (Horse Power) Electric motor pump is sold for Rs 30,000 in the market. Whereas to install the same 5 HP Solar pump, one needs Rs 3 Lakhs. This huge difference in investment is pushing normal farmers and public away.
But if the Government provides more subsidies and fix a subsidy limit such as 80% or 60% in the Benchmark cost of the pump sets this will help more people from various sectors such as agriculture, educational institutions, manufacturing, service sector industries and various other to show interest in installing solar pumps."