Beyond Irrigation: Harnessing the untapped potential of solar pumps
Lessons from a solar-powered milling pilot in Uttar Pradesh
India has 1 million solar irrigation pumps (SIPs) that could potentially power other productive "secondary uses." This study evaluates the use of SIPs to power village grain mills. The mills delivered benefits in accessibility, costs, diversity of food processing, and gender empowerment. However, there was uneven uptake linked to siting, operator availability, and power limits. We provide practical policy fixes to increase community benefits.
Key Findings
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Secondary use of power from solar irrigation systems can help address energy poverty in rural areas.
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Milling is a viable secondary use of solar irrigation power. It delivered benefits to rural communities in India by cutting milling costs and travel time, making energy access more affordable and convenient, and supporting livelihood diversification.
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Governments, technology developers, and businesses could further develop secondary use to boost economic viability and inclusion, such as by aligning policy and technologies with local needs, training women as owners/operators, ensuring adequate operator incentives, and pairing with battery storage.
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Integrating secondary uses into government programs and state-level policies could maximize the economic returns from solar assets and maximize their potential to reduce energy poverty in equitable ways.
India has around 1 million standalone solar irrigation pumps, much of whose capacity sits idle outside irrigation seasons. This power can be harnessed for other productive secondary uses to extend benefits to smallholders, women, and rural entrepreneurs.
Our study conducts an experimental field study in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, to evaluate channelling that spare power into village grain mills in Uttar Pradesh. Community mills powered by solar pumps lowered milling costs, shortened travel, and enabled smaller, fresher, more diverse milling. Women, girls, and elders could mill independently, though deeper norms around household decision making reduced these impacts. Constraints were operational: operator availability, service quality, queues, and peripheral siting. Scaling secondary-use models with clear siting and service standards, female attendants, and simple retrofits can turn underused solar potential into engines of rural prosperity.
Read more publications from this project:
- Beyond Irrigation: Turning sunlight into supper for Kenya's women and farmers | A pilot of secondary use of solar irrigation power for clean cooking
- Ethnographic Research as a Tool for More Inclusive Just Transition Policies: Lessons from Mpumalanga, South Africa
- Coal Transition Impacts and the Approach to Inclusive Just Transition Policies in Indonesia
- Indonesia's Next Cooking Transition: Shifting to non-fossil cooking
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