TDHVL kicks off the trial phase of the solar pump app

TDHVL kicked off the trial phase of the Solar Pump App in India, Jointly developed by Dr. Stratis Batzelis, TDHVL member and RAEng research fellow, and Prof Bikash Pal’s group at Imperial College London in partnership with Oorja Development Solutions, this mobile phone app aims at digitalizing the solar-driven irrigation services in India.

These solar pumps comprise 4.8kWp solar panels and a 5HP motor to pump water and irrigate farmland in isolated agricultural areas in many developing countries. The main challenge they face though is high weather dependence and uncertainty on when and how much water the farmer will be able to get. The developed app performs weather and water output forecasting and optimal scheduling of the farmers’ water requests towards improved system utilization and customer satisfaction.