The government of Uttar Pradesh has come up with a new program for small and marginal farmers to promote solar energy in the state. The government has proposed a ‘community mini green tubewell’ program, under which 179 community solar tubewells will be installed in the state.

Under the program, solar-powered tubewells will be constructed for a group of small and marginal farmers. A group should have a minimum of ten farmers. The cost of one tubewell will be set at ₹469,000 (~$6,395), out of which the center will give financial assistance of ₹73,050 (~$996.1), the state will provide ₹242,000 (~$3,299), and farmers’ society will provide ₹153,000 (~$2,086).

The pilot project has been proposed for one year. The government has approved an amount of ₹60 million (~$818,166) for the program.

The minor irrigation department will implement the tube well work, and the agriculture department will set up the solar pumps. The state’s agriculture department will act as the nodal agency for the implementation of Component B of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) program.

Under Component B of the KUSUM program, the government aims to install 1.75 million standalone solar-powered agriculture pumps of individual capacity up to 7.5 HP by 2022.

One solar tubewell will irrigate nearly six hectares of net area and create irrigation potential for 10 hectares of land. The tubewells would be installed at a depth of 69 meters, and a 5 HP solar pump will be installed to draw water from the tubewell.

As per the Chief Minister’s instructions, action will be taken to construct 10 tubewells in big districts and five community tubewells in smaller districts. The program will help marginalized farmers who can now install solar-powered tubewells.

The program will be implemented throughout the state except for overcrowded and critical development blocks. If everything goes well, the program will be expanded in the coming years.

Last month, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy proposed initiating a centralized tendering process for the current year’s target of 450,000 standalone solar pumps under Component B of the PM-KUSUM program.

Back in June, MNRE issued guidelines for installing innovative standalone solar pumps to promote technological innovation in the sector. The guidelines were issued after it received input from industry stakeholders and innovators who claimed that using different designs could make solar pumps more efficient in cost and performance than those specified by the Ministry.

Image credit: Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (JREDA)