Climate change has become a universal threat to mankind which requires urgent action. This has seen the replacement of the Millennium Development Goals by the Sustainable Development Goals. The Sustainable Development Goals do not only target improving the social and economic life of the poor worldwide but also have additional emphasis on protecting the environment and ensuring sustainable use of resources [1]. When considering the development of the country, energy is one of the key points. Energy can be generated from renewable and non-renewable energy sources. High prices, fast depletion rate and environmental impacts of fossil fuels create problems in electricity generation through conventional energy sources. Solar powered water pumping system has emerged as a promising alternative to conventional diesel and electricity powered irrigation pumps [2].
Most of the 82.9% of the Ethiopian population living in rural areas depend on agriculture this is seen as the engine that helps to ensure food security, generate incomes, provide jobs and drive rural development. The Government of Ethiopia places strong emphasis on agriculture, including smallholder agriculture. Investment in irrigation is a key strategic direction to accelerate economic structural transformation, it is important to note that women are responsible for about 40% of agricultural activities in Ethiopia, but has 13.4% lower productivity than men caused by endowment and structural differences. Reducing these resource and structural differences through targeted measures for equitability has the potential to boost agricultural growth. Solar Powered Irrigation Systems provide a reliable source of clean energy to the farmers to irrigate their lands [3]. Once the systems are installed, there is no cost per unit of power and thus no financial incentive for farmers to save on fuel or electricity for water pumping. This can lead to wasteful water use, over-abstraction of groundwater, and low field application efficiency. In some cases, farmers sell water to their neighbors at a profit, increasing the overall water withdrawals. Recognizing the water-related risks and addressing those from the beginning especially in the financing and design stages will be crucial to ensure the sustainable use of Solar Powered Irrigation Systems technology [4, 7]
Figure 1 shows the implementation in southern part of Ethiopia as small-scale irrigation with minimum cost can effectively build the resilience of vulnerable farming households by reducing their reliance on erratic and unpredictable rainfall. The introduction of appropriate, sustainable and successful solar powered small-scale irrigation schemes requires attention to good practice at each stage of implementation, right from planning, to construction and through to community level governance in the country.
Survey Of Literature>
In this section works related to this paper are discussed. Different reports, product information, case study, website and published papers exists solar irrigation system were conducted.
The work indicated in entitled as “Design and Simulation of Photo-voltaic Water Pumping System for Irrigation” presents standalone PV system for irrigation application [2]. Solar PV power is more reliable for small scale irrigation for almost all parts of Ethiopia. This is due to the fact that solar energy is in phase with water demand to irrigate crops, secondly; Ethiopia has an abundant supply of solar energy throughout the year. According to the researcher using solar power system will increase rural electrification and enhancing the living standard of the community.
A paper entitled as “PV Water Pumping Systems for Agricultural Applications” [5]. The paper discus about the detail about an accurate assessment of the crop irrigation water requirement is essential for the optimal design of PV Water Pumping systems. Moreover, analyzing the effects of pumped water on the available water resources and crop productivity is essential for verifying the technical successfulness of the design. The constraint related the groundwater resource represents the main determining factor for the optimal size of solar water pumping systems. According to the paper implementation of solar water pumping system need to be assessed and strategic design must be applied for proper utilization of ground water.
A paper entitled as “Rural Water Supply Technology Selection in Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 in Amhara, Ethiopia” [6]. The paper presents about Social issues are significant to consider when planning a solar scheme. Social issues to be considered are land use and ownership, acceptance of the community and the willingness to pay.
A paper entitled as “Performance Study of a Solar Photovoltaic Water pump used for Irrigation at Jaipur in Rajasthan, India” [7]. The paper presents about Performance of a 5 hp Brush Less DC submersible solar photovoltaic water pump installed at Madarpura (Jhotwada) of Jaipur in Rajasthan. The simulation results vary because of number of variable such as water requirement at irrigation field site, head of water, head of pump etc. given as input.
The work indicated in entitled as “Solar Energy Harvesting for Irrigation Water Pumping System”. This paper presents the stand- alone solar water pumping system for irrigational purpose. The proposed system can be implemented with low cost controllers. This system uses conventional two-stage converter one for getting maximum power from solar array and second for the controlling the induction motor drive performance by v/f control algorithm. MPPT is achieved by perturb and observe MPP algorithm. Flow rate of pump has been controlled by controlling the motor speed by PI controller .Simulation analysis depicts that the steady state as well as dynamic state is satisfactory and both controllers are working smoothly [8].