After receiving a lukewarm response to the ambitious solar pump installation scheme, the energy department has decided to come up with community solar pumps rather than individual installation. The first such pilot project is coming up in Solapur where a solar pump will be installed for a group of farmers. The state government’s plan to install 10,000 solar pumps has not found many takers, as about only 200 farmers have paid the installment of Rs 25,000.
Talking about the community solar plant at Solapur, energy minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule told the Asian Age that it would help large number of farmers. “This is a pilot project for large number of farmers. We are going to introduce feeder solar pump to them,” the minister said. “The electricity needed for a feeder, which is used as a supplier for agriculture pumps, will be generated through the single solar plant,” he added.
The individual solar pumps cost Rs 3.5-4 lakh each, of which 60 per cent of the cost will be borne by Mahadiscom, 30 per cent by the Centre and five per cent each by the state and end-user.
An official from Mahadiscom said that the cost was also one of the reasons for poor response. Added to that, the individual pumps need half an acre to one acre of land for installation, which the small farmers are finding the condition tough to fulfil.
“The farmers are apprehensive about the new technology apart from finding it difficult to pay the cost. Also, drought in the last three years has affected the farmers financially. Therefore the community-based solar pump was proposed by activists working in the field and we are soon installing it at Solapur on pilot basis,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
However, the minister claimed that the department has received 1.5 lakhs of applications from the farmers willing to install the pumps. But he did not confirm that how many of them have actually paid the cost. “The farmers will pay their share soon. They know that the government’s scheme will not fail. Once we install the pumps, the farmers will pay the amount,” Mr Bawankule said.
