Techno-economic Analysis of Solar Irrigation: Comparison with Conventional Energy Sources for Irrigation

Environment protection and sustainable development have recently grabbed the attention of policy makers towards renewable energies. Agriculture has been a major energy consuming sector in Iran in recent years as pressurized irrigation systems have changed into a new policy priority. This paper explains how photovoltaic (PV) agricultural water pumps can be adopted under different conditions. A life cycle cost analysis has been done for solar, diesel and electric pumping systems for the case of grape cultivation in Kaashmar region. According to the results, under subsidized fuel supply for electricity generation, solar pumps can only compete with diesel pumps for demands of less than 4.5 kilowatts. Moreover, the feasibility of solar irrigations highly depend on the area under cultivation, the type of cultivated crop, access to other energies and their costs, solar system technologies, and the type of irrigation system. Thus, feasibility studies for solar irrigation should be done on a case by case basis.