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Solar powered water pumps are one of the most important ways for off-grid communities to gain access to water cheaply and cleanly. Standards are required to enable this market to continue growing and the IEC is working on the appropriate specifications.
Solar PV pumps help communities have access to water in remote off-grid areas.
In a small village in Ethiopia, women and girls used to walk for miles to collect water from faraway ponds and rivers. Time wasted that could not be spent at school, taking its toll on the younger women’s education. But this all changed when UNICEF, alongside its partner CARE, installed a solar-powered water system that serves over 6.500 people. This is only one of the many examples where solar photovoltaic tech is helping remote communities gain access to water.
Water scarcity may increasingly be an issue in modern cities (read: When cities run dry: tackling water scarcity) but there are areas of the world where it has always been a luxury and is becoming more so as global warming intensifies. According to the United Nations, as of 2022, 2.2 billion people were without access to safely managed drinking water. Four out of five people lacking at least basic drinking water services in 2022 lived in rural areas. Much more needs to be done to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6), which is to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
From diesel to solar PV water pumps
One of the ways of ensuring communities who live in water-deprived rural areas gain access to that essential resource has always been water pumps. The first water pumps go back to the Ancient Greeks. Some historians believe the invention came out of a need to remove bilge water from The Syracusia, a naval warship that also transported goods and provided luxury travel for a select few.
Whatever the reason, the devices have been used for centuries and over past decades relied on diesel generators or the fossil-fuel-reliant electrical grid for power. But in more recent years, solar-activated water pumps have been gaining ground at an amazing speed, especially in sun-drenched areas where water and electricity are difficult to access. Solar water pumps use PV panels to convert sunlight into electricity, which then powers a pump drawing water from either groundwater or other sources such as lakes and rivers.
According to figures published by consultancy Market Research Future, the market for solar water pumps was estimated to be around $28 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach a value of around $52 billion million by the end of 2032, nearly doubling in less than 10 years.
Pros of solar pumps include cost
One of the obvious advantages of solar water pumps is that they don’t produce carbon emissions, unlike traditional water pumps. These have been powered by diesel-powered motors in remote off-grid areas, which emit a large amount of greenhouse gases. When water pumps are used in cities, they are connected to the grid which is also often dependent on fossil fuels. By switching to solar PV energy, communities help to meet UN SDG 13, which is to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Other pros of the solar PV devices include their cost: they tend to be much cheaper to operate than diesel pumps which are dependent on the price of the fossil fuel. An example of how cost plays an important role can be found in the state of Gujarat in India. There, salt farmers traditionally relied on diesel pumps to extract salt water from the marshes. Communities spent eight months of the year extracting salt in very dry and hot, sunny weather but could only make a subsistence living because of the high cost of diesel. The farmers recently switched to solar PV pumps, a move largely subsidized by the state of Gujarat, and since have tremendously improved their standards of living, providing better education for their children and improving their homes. According to one of the farmers, the change reduced the cost of salt farming to one third of what it was.
According to UNICEF Nigeria’s Water and Sanitation Manager, Michael Forson, the cost of diesel is prohibitive for many communities wishing to improve their access to water. “The price of a liter of diesel can increase so much that many communities may not be able to afford fuel to access water. With solar energy, communities have a power supply system that virtually operates at zero cost,” he emphasizes.
IEC benchmarks for solar water pumps
Solar PV systems are standardized by one of the IEC technical committees that provides benchmarks for renewable energy systems, TC 82. The IEC 62257 series of technical specifications make recommendations for small renewable hybrid systems for rural electrification and has been recognized by the World Bank and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The series can be accessed by developing nations at a discounted price.
One of TC 82 working groups, led by South Africa’s Leon Drotsché and the USAs Arne Jacobson, is working on a technical specification (TS) for solar PV-powered water pumps. The publication specifies test methods for small-scale (<2kW PV power) off-grid solar water pumps that assess performance, safety, durability and quality. The TS is part of the IEC 62253 series focused on PV pumping systems and is due to be published in the middle of 2026.
Solar PV tech has many advantages in terms of cost, cleanliness and ease of use. IEC standards are largely contributing to its widespread adoption, meeting several UN Sustainable Development Goals along the way – from SDG 6 which aims to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, to SDG 13 which seeks to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. |
