Grid-connected vs. off-grid solar water pumping systems for agriculture in India: a comparative study

Grid-connected Solar Water Pumping Systems (SWPS) are being considered in India for agriculture use to improve their capacity utilization and economic viability. With good rural connectivity of grid infrastructure, India has the opportunity to meet rapidly increasing energy demand for agriculture, at the rate of 3.5% per year, with grid-connected systems to promote sustainable agriculture. The objectives of this paper are: (1) Compare the techno-economic performance of off-grid and grid-connected solar water pumping systems in India for a given location, size of the land and type of the crop. (2) Quantify the economic benefits (revenue generated) of grid-connected systems using the concept of utilizability. The result shows that the Levelized Energy Cost (LEC) of the grid-connected SWPS through Life Cycle Cost (LCC) varies from18.6% to 50.4% of the present average cost of grid energy and is 34% to 54% less than the off-grid system depending on the size of the pump. Uncertainty analysis for quantifying the impact of uncertainties in solar resource and economic factors will be taken up as a scope for further research work.