Modern facilities like sanitary water supply is what implies as the difference between suburban and urban schools in India. Most rural government institutions are missing the means to effectively provide water to its students without putting them at risk of bacterial infection or non-sanitary conditions. Limited supply of water, especially during the dry season put most schools in a compromise when it comes to keeping the enlisted students well hydrated. Our country harbours the potential to utilize latent solar energy to pump grounded water in schools and institutions. Our team at Sunshell strives at facilitating schools across rural areas like Alipore, Coochbihar and Jalpaiguri District, with the means of harnessing their own supply of water using our Photovolatic Solar pumps of 5 hp. This will not only allow the student to be able to enjoy a healthy supply of water but also reap the benefits of using a solar power plant as an alternate source of energy. Installing solar PV systems in schools enables the students to be more aware of the applications of solar energy today.
Product Overview
SunShell Power is an emerging name in the industry of solar energy in India, dedicated to spreading awareness on the benefits of solar power around the rural landscape of India. Our team hinges their efforts in making the technology more accessible in terms of both service and quality.
Installing and commissioning our 5HP solar water pumping systems in various schools spread across the districts of Alipur, Coochbihar and Jalpiaguri has been a successful endeavour for furthering healthy water sanitation in the rural Indian education scene. Earlier, the water supply was at risk of being laced with arsenic or was not quite recommendable for drinking. Extra expenditure would go into filtering and supply of fresh drinkable water. Now, the children in these schools have access to fresh drinking water with no extra charges levied on energy consumption. With over 24 solar PV pumps installed, these schools now have free flow of fresh ground water for over 7 hours, which is free of arsenic or bacterial infestation, along with an additional generation of 4 kWh per day.
Technical Details
On meticulously surveying the needs of all village side schools, our team came to the conclusion that installing a 5 HP solar PV water pumping system would be sufficient in fulfilling the requirements of a single school. The goal was to have the tank and modular units set up at a minimum elevation of 12 feet based on the needs of the area involved, amount of water stored and specific drinking requirements of that school. In the following are some of the technical details involved with the project:
- The collected power which is in raw DC format, is passed through a hybrid controller’s AC MCB which not only enables the user in controlling the speed by using its Single Pump Drive (SPD) but also use a changeover switch to shift to using grid power.
- Any spikes in the voltage caused from an active electric storm is prevented as the solar pump comes installed with a 2Nos Lighting Arrester that diverts the excess power to a grounded terminal.
- A 4 Nos Earthing facility ensures that any exposed equipment is not damaged from any uncalled for lightning strike.
- The water tanks have been constructed using a GI structure made with ISMB which gives it the capacity of storing over 5000 liters of water.
- A 325 Wp modular structure was set up, which is able to mount to at least 4 panels each.
- The structure supports a submersible solar pump of 1 HP and which is also equipped with specialized filters to ensure that the water is neither laced with arsenic or harmful bacteria.
Execution and Implementation
A total of over 24 solar PV pump systems were installed in schools which needed a healthy sustainable solution to clean drinking water. The installation was strategically carried out without putting any personnel at risk or disrupting the daily proceedings of the institution. Following are further details of the installation:
- The solar pump systems installed in each of these schools came with a dual axis structure that can mount of 3 panels and had the easy flexibility to rotate freely.
- In order to ensure the pump had enough access to the grounded water, a submersible pump set was installed to allow pumping at a depth of 110 feet.
- A pump controller facilitated the manual handling of the pump which was effectively installed in over 24 sites.
- The AC DC wiring was insulated within the conduit and the lighting arrester ensured that no extra spikes in voltage would affect or otherwise damage the wiring.
Conclusion
In light of the details provided above, we can add that the project was successful in catering to the needs of these schools and the children enrolled in their program had access to safe hygienic drinking water. The photovoltaic water pump system is completely power efficient and our expert team of engineers ensured that the system is completely safe to be around and handled. With over 4 KWH of power generation each day, each unit can run upto 7 hours in pumping water. It was indeed a challenge to install our pumps at an elevation of 12 feet but at the added expense of expert workforce, provided with the proper precautionary measures like helmet and safety gear, the project became a success.
