Thiruchirapalli
Agricultural engineering officials, who have already sanctioned 67 units in the district so far, have decided to provide 23 units this year and plan to promote the upgraded motors with 10 HP against 5 HP motors currently used. The Department of Agricultural Engineering has been promoting solar powered motor pumps with 80 per cent subsidy for a 5 HP motor with dual solar panels which costs Rs 5.01 lakh and the farmer has to pay just Rs 1.17 lakh as his share and the remaining amount will be a subsidy from the government.
“We have received good response from the farmers on this project and year by year, the number of farmers approaching us has been increasing. So far, we have sanctioned 67 units in Tiruchy district including 18 units during 2015-16 and sought the sanction for 23 units in 2016-17,” said, Joint Director (Agri) Chandrasekar.
The agricultural engineering department has introduced auto tracking panels for the unit this year which would change the direction for its focus on the sunlight automatically. “The panels will change their direction according to the sunlight. At around 7 am, the panels get 90 per cent radiation for the auto rotation, we have used a power backup with 12 V battery.
And each panel can generate 2.4 HP units which would run the 5 HP motor,” Executive Engineer (Agri Engineering) Murugesan told DTNext. While the unit gets free service for five years, each panel can withstand 25 years under weather conditions prevailing in Tiruchy, the Executive Engineer said. In the meantime, P Balaramakrishnan, a farmer from Lalgudi, who has been using solar power panel for watering his 2.50 acres of land said the unit had become a boon for his agricultural activities as he could get uninterrupted power supply. The 5 HP motor can pump out water even from a depth of 100 metres.
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