Solar Water Pumping for Smallholder Irrigation — Malawi

Project Overview

Compact irrigation supply package for a smallholder operation where fuel handling and grid availability made conventional pumping costly and inconsistent. The system was designed around daylight pumping, water storage, and a locally serviceable electrical layout.

Project Challenges

• Irrigation needed to be practical without daily fuel deliveries or reliance on a weak grid connection.
• Field components had to be simple enough for routine cleaning and inspection by the site team.

Supply Scope

• Specified a solar pumping controller with dry-run and low-water protection, matched to the selected pump and borehole conditions.
• Used water storage as the primary energy buffer, avoiding an unnecessary battery system for a daylight-led irrigation schedule.

Case Takeaways

• The supply package was built around a maintainable pumping workflow: generate in daylight, pump to storage, and irrigate to the farm schedule.
• Pump-controller documentation and spare-component recommendations were included for local maintenance planning.

• Monocrystalline PV modules
• Solar pump controller with protection functions
• Project-matched submersible pump
• Ground-mount structure, cable, and DC isolators