Hybrid Energy Powered Smart Irrigation System for Smallholder Farmers

缺水已经影响到每个大洲，这个问题在撒哈拉以南非洲和南亚更加突出。水资源短缺提请发展界注意，必须更有效地利用有限的水资源，特别是在农业方面，以可持续的方式增加作物产量和实现全球粮食安全。然而，这一目标要求增加灌溉面积，而不考虑可用的水资源。获得可持续和具有成本效益的灌溉系统对许多小农来说是维持其生计和粮食安全的关键。运行灌溉系统仍然是极具挑战性的。在许多发展中国家的许多农村地区，仍然没有电网扩建。在没有可靠的电力供应的情况下，农民不得不求助于基于柴油的抽水系统。这些系统造成了高昂的运营成本，经常出现服务缺口，加剧了温室气体排放，并导致了不生产此类燃料的国家的能源账单。因此，可再生能源，特别是太阳能和风能，鉴于其环境优势、维护成本低和投资成本越来越低，对于太阳能和风能密度高的地区的可持续农业来说，似乎是一个非常有前途的解决方案。该项目旨在设计、开发和演示一种新型的、同时由太阳能和风能驱动的“智能灌溉系统”。该技术具有成本效益高、效率高、运行成本低、零排放等优点。这将为小规模农民提供灌溉粮食和经济作物的能源，并增加他们的收入。

Water scarcity already affects every continent, and the problem is more prominent in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Water shortages have drawn the attention of the development community to the necessity of achieving more efficient use of limited water resources, especially in agriculture to increase crop production and to achieve global food security in a sustainable way. This target, however, demands an increase in the irrigated area regardless of the water resources available.Access to sustainable and cost-effective irrigation system is key to many small-scale farmers in order to sustain their livelihoods and food security. Running an irrigation system is still extremely challenging. There are still no electricity grid-extension in many rural areas in many developing countries. In the absence of a reliable electricity supply, farmers have to resort to diesel-based pumping systems. These systems create high operating costs, often experience service gaps, contribute to GHG emissions, and contribute to the energy bill in countries that do not produce such fuels. Therefore, renewable energy options, and in particular solar and wind energy, seem a very promising solution for sustainable agriculture in regions with high-solar-insulation and wind energy density, given its environmental advantages, low maintenance and increasingly low investment costs.This project aims to design, develop and demonstrate a novel "smart irrigation system" powered by "solar and wind energy" simultaneously. This technology is cost effective, efficient, with no running cost, and zero emission. This will provide energy access to small-scale farmers for irrigation of food and cash crops, and results in an increase in their earnings.