Feasibility of Utilizing Photovoltaics for Irrigation Purposes in Moamba, Mozambique

Arsénio José Mindú, Jó António Capece, Rui Esteves Araújo and Armando C. Oliveira
Additional contact information
Arsénio José Mindú: Physics Department, Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics, Pedagogical University of Maputo, Maputo 1102, Mozambique
Jó António Capece: Physics Department, Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics, Pedagogical University of Maputo, Maputo 1102, Mozambique
Rui Esteves Araújo: INESC TEC, Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Armando C. Oliveira: INEGI, Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 19, 1-16

Abstract: Agriculture plays a significant role in the labor force and GDP of Mozambique. Nonetheless, the energy source massively used for water pumping in irrigation purposes is based on fossil fuels (diesel oil). Despite the water availability and fertile soils in Moamba, Mozambique, farmers struggle with the high cost of fuels used in the pumping systems. This study was sought to analyze the feasibility of utilizing a solar photovoltaic system as a means to reduce the environmental impact caused by the diesel pumps and simultaneously alleviate the expenses regarding the use of non-environmentally friendly technologies. Site observations and interviews were undertaken in order to obtain local data regarding the water demand, current energy systems costs and distances from the source to the irrigated fields. CLIMWAT 2.0 was used for climate data acquisition and analysis. The environmental benefits, the cost effectiveness and local climate conditions show that the PV system is feasible in Moamba. Furthermore, parameters such as hydraulic energy, incident solar energy, pump efficiency and total system efficiency were used to predict the performance of the system. The results obtained are important to analyze the implementation of such energy systems.

Keywords: photovoltaics; energy; water; irrigation; agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/19/10998/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/19/10998/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:19:p:10998-:d:649654

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().