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initial version
LarryB gravatar image
EWB USA Energy

I can only think of one situation where this MIGHT produce more water than a direct solar pumping system and that is such a bad situation you would want to avoid if possible: If the sustainable recharge of the borehole is so low that to meet the needs of the community it takes continuous pumping equal to or less than that low recharge rate. In that bad case, adding batteries and additional PV to make up for battery losses could allow for a low volume pump to run 24 hours and produce more water than a pump that flows well above the sustainable recharge of the borehole, but shuts down frequently due to drawdown low water level.

I.E. if a borehole recharged at say 1 L/sec and you needed more than 3600 L times the locally available full sun hours (say 4 hours average), or more than ~15,000 L/day then your only choice would be a low volume pump at say 0.75 L/sec pumping 24 hours could give you about 64,000 L/Day. It could work but the efficiency would be so low that the cost of the extra solar panels, controls and batteries (plus maintenance) might equal the cost for another borehole, which would likely be a better solution.

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No.2 Revision
Cristian Anton gravatar image
WaterAid

I can only think of one situation where this MIGHT might produce more water than a direct solar pumping system and that is such a bad situation you would want to avoid if possible:

If the sustainable recharge of the borehole is so low that to meet the needs of the community it takes continuous pumping equal to or less than that low recharge rate. In that bad case, adding batteries and additional PV to make up for battery losses could allow for a low volume pump to run 24 hours and produce more water than a pump that flows well above the sustainable recharge of the borehole, but shuts down frequently due to drawdown low water level.

I.E. That is, if a borehole recharged at say 1 L/sec and you needed more than 3600 L times the locally available full sun hours (say 4 hours average), or more than ~15,000 L/day then your only choice would be a low volume pump at say 0.75 L/sec pumping 24 hours could give you about 64,000 L/Day. It could work but the efficiency would be so low that the cost of the extra solar panels, controls and batteries (plus maintenance) might equal the cost for another borehole, which would likely be a better solution.