Idea 420 of 500. Cluster 21: Energy, water and waste at small scale
Solar water pumps for the smallholders, sold with a maintenance contract
The mechanism, from the book
The sun shines on every roof and the island imports its fuel.
Every idea in cluster 21 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Sit with 10 smallholders in one farming area and ask how they pump water now, what they spend on fuel or electricity each season, and how often the pump breaks. Get a supplier's quote for a solar pump installed, then offer it with a yearly maintenance contract and a repair promise. The proof is a farmer paying a deposit, or a farmers' group ordering together.
- Who pays first
- A smallholder who spends heavily on fuel for a diesel pump each season and has lost a crop when the pump failed at the wrong time.
- What leaves today
- Diesel for pumping is imported and paid for every season; a solar pump with a maintenance contract replaces that import with sunlight and a local mechanic.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. FourteenThe List
Energy: first, stop importing it
More from cluster 21
- 411Rooftop solar leasing for households, paid from the electricity bill
- 412Solar-powered cold rooms for the fishing harbours and the farms
- 413Biogas plants for the dairy and pig farms, with the gas sold locally
- 414Rainwater-harvesting installation for the dry-zone villages and the hotels
- 415Waste-collection and recycling businesses in the tourist towns, paid by the businesses they serve
- 416Composting of hotel and market waste into a branded soil product
Idea 420 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.