The Madhya Pradesh govt is set to install 52,000 solar irrigation pumps, totaling a cumulative capacity of around 250 MW across the state.
The pumps, for which tenders have already been issued, will be available to farmers on a first-come, first-served basis. Farmers will have to pay 40% of the costs, while 30% will be will be subsidised by the union govt and remaining 30% by the state govt.
The solar panels used in these pumps will be of around 5-kilowatt capacity, thus, overall, 52,000 pumps will be of around 250 MW capacity,
These irrigation pumps will make farmers independent of the grid and other issues related to it, such as outages in the peak season due to overload or failure. In most areas, farmers complain that irrigation power is supplied during odd night hours, but now, these pumps can be used during solar hours in the daytime.
Besides being beneficial to the farmers, this will eventually decrease the subsidy burden on the govt. Sources say that on average, for every agriculture pump of five horsepower, the govt spends around Rs 50,000 in subsidy every year. Thus, the 30% one-time subsidy that the govt is giving on these pumps will be recovered within two years, as no subsidy will be required for these farmers after the installation of the solar pumps. As these pumps will not be connected to the grid and will be independent solar pumps, energy will be totally free for the farmers, said sources.