Multidimensional Analysis of Groundwater Pumping for Irrigation Purposes: Economic, Energy and Environmental Characterization for PV Power Plant Integration

Abstract

Nowadays, the agriculture sector presents relevant opportunities to integrate renewable energy sources as an alternative solution to mitigate fossil-fuel dependence and decrease emissions. Moreover, this sector demands a detailed review of energy uses and other factors that are addressed as priority issues in most developed countries. In this framework, groundwater pumping energy requirements for agriculture irrigation emerge as a relevant topic to be improved in terms of power demand. Actually, this demand is currently supplied by diesel equipment solutions, with relevant drawbacks such as: (i) a large energy dependence on fossil fuels for the agricultural sector and (ii) a lack of participation in reducing CO 2 emissions. This paper proposes a multidimensional characterization to evaluate photovoltaic (PV) solar energy integration into groundwater pumping requirements. Alternative solutions are compared under economic, energy and environmental aspects; thus providing an extensive scenario where the considerable influence of multiple factors such as water needs, irrigation area or aquifer depth are explicitly considered. Extensive results based on a real Spanish aquifer and discussion about the solutions are also included in the paper.