SOLAR PUMPS AND CLEAN WATER PROJECT FOR BALANTA PEOPLE
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When Balanta B’urassa History & Genealogy Society in America President Siphiwe Baleka visited the village of Tchokmon in Guinea Bissau for the first time in January 2020, the Alante Ndang (elders) said that improving their well was one of their highest development priorities. Having to draw water from 30 to 40 meters each time for washing, bathing, cooking, etc was too difficult, especially for the women. A solar-powered water pump and taps would solve the problem.
Raising money to provide a solar-powered water pump solution is now BBHAGSIA’s #1 fundraising project.
Working of a solar water pumping system
A solar water pump system is essentially an electrical pump system in which the electricity is provided by one or several PhotoVoltaic (PV) panels. A typical solar powered pumping system consists of a solar panel array that powers an electric motor, which in turn powers a bore or surface pump. The water is often pumped from the ground or stream into a storage tank that provides a gravity feed, so energy storage is not needed for these systems.
Below are some of the solutions we are investigating.
BISSU NAGA SOLUTION
We saw this setup in Bissu Naga in June, 2021. We know it works and seems to be a simple setup.
This system uses two Hyundai HiS-S295RG panels with a Maximum Power (Pmax) of 295Wp. Each panel costs about $184.10, so that’s $368.20 total for the solar panels. Here is the installation manual.
The panels are connected to a junction box (comes with the panels) and a charge controller which is then connected to a series of three batteries. Nearly all PV panels rated over 140 watts are NOT standard 12-volt panels, and cannot (or at least should not) be used with standard charge controllers. The only way to get full power out of high voltage grid tie solar panels is to use an MPPT controller. Since the open circuit voltage of each panel is 39.8 V and 9.6 A, the system requires an MPPT controller for high voltage panels. Suitable MPPT controllers can cost between $59 and $390.
Finally, excess energy is stored in the batteries. In this setup, three batteries are used. Its hard to tell from these pictures what kind of batteries were used. The best solar batteries for energy storage can cost as much as $4,000. I don’t think that is what is being used here. We still need to figure out the type and cost of the batteries being used here or suitable for this system.
So far we have $368 for the solar panels, $390 for the MPPT controller, and lets estimate $4000 for the batteries. Adding another $1,500 for the water pump machine, $800 for the water tank and solar panel stands and $500 for the water tank we have a total major equipment cost of $7,558. Another $2,500 for labor and transportation costs and this project is roughly $10,000. The life of the solar panels is about 25 years and the battery life is 10 to 15 years. As you can see, the installation is protect from theft and damage from animals and provides an easy solution for community clean water.
