Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy<\/a>, also known as the Green Oscar, in 2004.<\/p>\n\u201cA similar mindset surrounded the personal computer\u2019s entry into the market decades ago,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
And even while \u201cbankers are keen to provide credit to renewable, green energy projects, the solar pump market still remains unregulated,\u201d Bibhash Dhar, chief manager of the technology finance group of the Mumbai-based ICICI Bank, told IPS.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo organisation or government department is mandated to certify these products nor are there any regulations in place. This is critical, particularly when so many sellers are already in the market making unsubstantiated claims and promises for their products,\u201d Dhar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat actually deters poorer farmers is when a few burn their fingers. Cheap, spurious (products) are part of this story,\u201d Dhar added.<\/p>\n
\u201cSolar pump marketing in India is good at giving out half-information, which is a dangerous trend for its future,\u201d added Prem Kalra, director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Jodhpur in Rajasthan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndia still lacks the technology to test and benchmark solar panels or to monitor performance after a few years\u2019 usage. Solar panels are produced in countries that do not factor in an 80 degrees centigrade daytime temperature or the salinity, the sand storms, the huge difference between day and night temperatures that the desert region of Jodhpur experiences,\u201d he told IPS.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can promises be made for a pump life of 25 years?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is also not discussed is that the depth of groundwater in the operational area impacts output and life span of the pump, as well as the inferior quality of panels,\u201d Kalra added.<\/p>\n
No government support<\/b><\/p>\n
Wahi, who has approached banks in Bihar that focus on rural credit, said, \u201cBanks would much rather provide credit in large volumes for solar lamps and lanterns each costing as little as 1,500 rupees (30 dollars) apiece, than provide loans for solar pumps.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith prices of photovoltaic film falling since 2008, the banks are worried that even if they seize the solar pumps of farmers defaulting on their loans, not much can actually be recovered.\u201d<\/p>\n
The solar pump has an unusual cost structure with very high capital investment and near-zero pumping costs. Experts believe the cost of installation makes solar pumps unattractive to small farmers who want to irrigate their own plots or farms.<\/p>\n
Proponents of the solar option have pointed out farmers can easily recover the initial investment or loan by independently hiring out irrigation services to neighbouring farmers and charging them fixed, government-approved fees.<\/p>\n
Conversely, eight to 10 small farmers in close proximity to one another can form water users\u2019 associations. Utilising a micro-grid at the village level is another feasible economic option.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike a tractor is hired out to supplement farmers\u2019 income, solar pumps \u2013 in order to be accepted \u2013 need to similarly be \u2018dividable\u2019 or economically versatile,\u201d Mumbai-based Sanjiv Phansalkar, programme leader at Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, told IPS.<\/p>\n
However, Nitya Jacob, programme director for water at the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), told IPS that environmentalists fear solar pumps could encourage groundwater abuse. \u201cIt is imperative to (attach) water extraction metres and control mechanisms to solar pumps,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Once installed, there can be no external or institutional control of a solar pump\u2019s operating hours. If a solar pump can operate for six to seven hours on a clear day, farmers will try to maximise water withdrawal in order to recover high capital costs and because running the pump is free. In water-stressed regions, this rush to harness all the water possible will prove disastrous in the long term.<\/p>\n
Any potential environmental gain such as solar pumps\u2019 low carbon footprint could be offset by their potential for excessive groundwater depletion unless control mechanisms are built in, say green activists.<\/p>\n
Go to Original \u2013 ipsnews.net<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When twenty-nine-year-old Kartik Wahi graduated from the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, Illinois in 2010, he wasted no time in returning to India to self-finance a start-up company to market solar-powered irrigation pumps. Working on a shoestring budget together with two partners, the young entrepreneur was convinced that the benefits of this renewable energy initiative would make a huge difference in some of India\u2019s largest agricultural regions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}