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Project properties |
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| Title | Solar pumps in the Water-Energy-Food nexus |
| Group | Water Resources Management group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 36 |
| Supervisor(s) | Harm Boesveld; Saskia van der Kooij |
| Examiner(s) | |
| Contact info | harm.boesveld@wur.nl; saskia.vanderkooij@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2020/01/01 |
| End date | 2022/01/31 |
| Description | Country: online
Host institute: tbd Period: open Problem context Solar pumps are increasingly seen as a solution to provide smallholders with sufficient irrigation water without the burden of high energy costs or the necessity of building energy infrastructures. Providing farmers access to groundwater would be beneficial in many agricultural settings to increase food security and solar energy is a sustainable alternative to diesel or electricity. The introduction of solar pumps also raises questions within the Water-Energy-Food nexus. For example, how does the variability of energy availability, and thus water pumping opportunity, relate to the variability of irrigation demand? And as solar pumps create access to groundwater almost free of charge, concerns are raised whether solar pumps would stimulate overexploitation of aquifers. Research Objective/Question Solar pumps are both expected to contribute to the sustainable energy transition, and expected to provide a reliable supply of irrigation water to produce food crops, by pumping water free of energy costs. Yet, can these two objectives go hand-in-hand, or is a trade-off necessary? How are solar pumps positioned in academic literature, and how does that relate to described case studies? What is expected from the student (type of research) The student is expected to develop his/her own research ideas around the topic, facilitated by the supervisors. Type of research: systematic literature review. |
| Used skills | |
| Requirements | MIL student |