Solar Electricity Buybacks May Reduce Groundwater Depletion in India

June 22, 2015

NOTE: Images in this archived article have been removed.

Image Removed Ramanbhai Parmar, a wheat and banana farmer in India’s dry state of Gujarat, was the first to sell electricity back to the power grid from the solar panels that drive his water pump. Photo credit: CCAFS/Prashanth Vishwanathan

It’s hard to find solutions that confront water depletion, climate change and rural poverty all at once, but an innovative scheme being piloted in the Indian state of Gujarat does just that.
 
The idea is to enable farmers using solar-powered irrigation pumps to sell excess electricity back to the grid. That gives them an incentive to pump only the water they really need for their crops, slowing the depletion of groundwater. It also diversifies and boosts their incomes. And by pumping with solar energy rather than diesel, they reduce climate-altering carbon emissions.
 
Last week, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and the mastermind of the new buy-back scheme in Gujarat, announced that Ramanbhai Parmar, a grower of bananas and wheat, would receive the first payment for his “solar crop.”
Innovative solutions to groundwater depletion are sorely needed in many parts of the world, but especially in India. More than 15 percent of India’s food is produced by mining groundwater.
 
In addition to Gujarat, groundwater levels are falling extensively in the breadbasket states of Punjab and Haryana in the northwest, as well as in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.
 
Much of the depletion has been driven by the availability of inexpensive motorized pumps, along with heavy subsidies for electricity and fuel.
In recent years many Indian farmers have switched from diesel to solar-powered pumps. While the shift to clean, renewable energy is a positive development, farmers still have an incentive to pump more water than they need because the near-flat rates for electricity make the cost of pumping additional water practically zero.
 
“’Solar crops’ are a very exciting example of a triple-win,” said IWMI senior fellow Tushaar Shah in a press release. “Farmers, the state, and precious water reserves all benefit from a single intervention.”
 
IWMI estimates that around 11 million farmers connected to the electricity grid could, in theory, benefit from such electricity buy-back schemes.
As part of its pilot study in Gujarat, IWMI is monitoring on-farm electricity generation, income, water efficiency and crop production.
 
While a small pilot scheme at the moment, this initiative is one worth watching.

Sandra Postel

Sandra Postel directs the independent Global Water Policy Project, and lectures, writes and consults on global water issues. In 2010 she was appointed Freshwater Fellow of the National Geographic Society, where she serves as lead water expert for the Society’s freshwater efforts. Sandra is co-creator of Change the Course, the national freshwater conservation and restoration campaign being pioneered by National Geographic and its partners. During 2000-2008, Sandra was visiting senior lecturer in Environmental Studies at Mount Holyoke College, and late in that term directed the college’s Center for the Environment. From 1988 until 1994, she was vice president for research at the Worldwatch Institute. Sandra is a Pew Scholar in Conservation and the Environment, and in 2002 was named one of the Scientific American 50, an award recognizing contributions to science and technology. In 1992 Postel authored Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity, which now appears in eight languages and was the basis for a PBS documentary that aired in 1997. She is also author of Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? (1999) and co-author of Rivers for Life: Managing Water for People and Nature (2003). Her article “Troubled Waters” was selected for inclusion in the 2001 edition of Best American Science and Nature Writing. Sandra has authored well over 100 articles for popular, scholarly, and news publications, including ScienceScientific AmericanForeign PolicyThe New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Tags: groundwater depletion, solar power, water conservation