IIT Bhubaneswar Develops Low-Cost Mobile Solar Pump for Farmers

Building on a 2017 grant from the state government of Odisha to build a technology driven support for farmers in the state, IIT Bhubaneswar has come up with a state-of-art solar pump that is not just economical, but also with added mobility  feature to support farmers in distant locations.

SO far,  IIT Bhubaneswar has delivered 13 such solar pumps to farmers in different locations. The funding was done under the flagship program Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana(RKVY), which is supported by the state directorate of agriculture and food production. The focus on solar pumps is certainly welcome at a time when millions of such pumps are planned for installation across the country under PMKUSUM and other schemes. .

These low cost pumps can be used for irrigation in villages that do not have power or have an inconsistent supply. The institute says that this solar pump is intended to work even when the sun’s radiation is low and can gather maximum solar energy using a single-stage power conversion from direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). The solar pumps can be powered by even a single phase grid supply.

The IIT press note said, “The institute is prepared to transfer the technology for mass production by any manufacturer with possible subsidies.”

The project started in IIT in 2017. The institute has delivered the solar pumps in the districts of Angul, Dhenkanal, Puri, Bhadrak, Korput, Keonjhar, Nayagarh, and Mayurbhanj where they have been installed successfully. Three villages – Podapada, Kanaspada, and Khudupur – were recently adopted by IIT Bhubaneswar under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan and now three solar pump systems are serving them.

Assistant Professor Srinivas Bhaskar Karanki from the school of electrical sciences and Assistant Professor Satish D Dhandole from the school of mechanical sciences led the entire project. It’s a cost-effective but highly effective tool for the farmers as there is no hindrance in transporting it from one farmland to another benefiting a large community of growers.

RV Raja Kumar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar, says, “Aside from current research and development efforts, the institution is also addressing issues in the hinterland through creative technological solutions.” He also adds that the institute has focused on producing technologies with significant societal, national and local relevance. He informs that apart from the 13 distributed ones, one solar pump is installed in the IIT campus itself.

With the PMKUSUM scheme pushing for solar pumps in irrigation, it remains to be seen if these low cost pumps could help Odisha move faster in the race to adopt more solar pumps. The state government has usually been chary of centrally funded schemes, preferring instead to go with its own version of such schemes so far, be it for health insurance, or in agriculture.