Solar water pumping schemes (SPWS) have been proven as the most cost-effective and sustainable way for communities in the Global South to gain access to water, with quality components and knowledgeable private sector companies available in literally every single country of the world.

Water pumps, however, can only use a fraction of the energy provided by solar panels, leaving a sizeable amount of surplus solar energy unused, and therefore wasted. Depending on the size of the SPWS, that surplus energy could be enough to power some hundreds of lights or phones to much larger energy consuming activities (large SPWS).

Moreover, when solarised pumps are switched off during the solar day (e.g., when water tanks get full or fields don’t need to be irrigated), the entire solar energy production is idle, and again not used.

In this video the idea to transform water schemes into solar energy hubs at community and institutional level is presented. The video introduces the idea to adapt common single-use SPWS into multipurpose SPWS so that unused and idle energy currently present and wasted at those single-use schemes can be used for other purposes.

This innovative approach offers a new way to support the shift to cleaner and more cost-efficient energy solutions, using water as an anchor.

Click here to watch video in English, Français, Español.