Unleashing a solar irrigation pump revolution for smallholder farmers in Myanmar
Tutor/a - Director/a
Costa Neto, Rui Pedro da
Estudiant
Phillips, Alexis
Tipus de document
Projecte Final de Màster Oficial
Data
2021
rights
Accés obert
Editorial
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
UPCommons
Resum
500 million smallholder farmers are responsible for producing 80% of the world's food. As the price of solar has decreased 96% over the past 12 years, farmers no longer have to waste money on expensive diesel pumps while only affording to irrigate half of their crops. A low cost solar powered irrigation system for a 0.81 hectare farm in the Central Dry Zone of Myanmar was designed for growing green gram during the dry season and monsoon rice during the rainy season, as is typical. A NPV of $3,518 with a 5% discount rate and LCOE of $0.11/kWh (required amount) and $0.06/kWh (total available) was discovered for a system comprised of a 2.2 kW submersible DC pump, 2.64 kW of solar PV, a 50,000 liter ferrocement elevated water tank, and movable drip line irrigation for maximum efficiency. An IRR of 19% with a payback of 5.5 years was found for a system's 20 year lifetime total cost of $3,235, 3.8 times cheaper than diesel. The total cost of water was $0.07/kg of green gram grown and 29 metric tonnes of CO2 are avoided over 20 year life for the solar design or 10.8 mil metric tonnes of CO2 if all 370,000 diesel irrigation pumps in Myanmar were replaced with solar.
Entitat col·laboradora
Mandalay Yoma Solar Energy
Instituto Superior Técnico Lisboa
Localització
Professorat participant
- Costa Neto, Rui Pedro da