Page - 164 - in Clean Water Using Solar and Wind - Outside the Power Grid

164 Clean Water Using Solar and Wind: Outside the Power Grid of lack of delivery during the night. This will define the ambition of the storage capacity (see Chapter 10.2). Economy is crucial. As noted by Professor Akhlesh Lakhtakia, Penn State University, U.S.: “Poor people don’t need the most efficient sources. They need affordable ones, and a helpful nudge to improve their lives; that motivated us in our research.” Research is ongoing into developing solar cells that are less efficient (up to 17%) than most on the market but can produce a viable level of electricity at a greatly reduced production cost. Instead of using silicon the researchers are exploring indium gallium nitride, which could give some advantage with its semiconducting properties. It is apparent that renewable energy can play a major role in extending energy access to communities in the developing world. However, many of these countries suffer from a lack of technical expertise to implement these facilities. As noted previously, a shortage of local human resources is a key barrier to fulfilling the high potential of renewable development. Therefore, it is important to ensure technical education in these regions. High-income countries have a huge responsibility to make this happen. This can enable the development of local industries to provide the country with renewables. 14.2 IRRIGATION AND WATER PUMPING Irrigation water requirement (IWR) is site-specific and depends on the particular crop. IWR values can be anywhere between 20 and 70 m3/hectare/day (Campana et  al., 2015). As a comparison, a precipitation of 1 mm corresponds to 10 m3/hectare. Example 14.1: Pumping for Irrigation Using Solar PV, Senegal. A low-cost and simple solar pumping system was implemented in Senegal in 2013 (www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPvPJuvLw9Q). The potential source of water is a small river nearby and the pumping system is used for irrigation. Solar panels were becoming affordable and the challenge was to find other affordable components of the system. There are reliable solar pumps available, but they are more expensive than the solar panels. The system has five solar panels with a capacity of 5 ⋅ 80 W = 400 W. In Senegal solar panels are easily available even at the roadside. Downloaded from https://iwaponline.com/ebooks/book-pdf/520710/wio9781780409443.pdf by IWA Publishing user