About — SPVWPS Tool

Dinesh Kumar

B.Tech — Agricultural Engineering | Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar

Agricultural Engineering Solar Irrigation FAO-56 Methodology PM-KUSUM Python · Flask

Developed as part of B.Tech final year project at RPCAU Pusa. This tool implements the internationally accepted FAO-56 Penman-Monteith evapotranspiration methodology for accurate crop water requirement estimation and solar pump sizing — bridging the gap between scientific irrigation design and on-ground implementation under India's PM-KUSUM scheme. Thanks to Ravish Chandra sir for their invaluable guidance and mentorship for this project.

Project Guide

Dr. Ravish Chandra

Faculty Guide · Department of irrigation and drainage engineering · Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar

This project was developed under the expert guidance of Dr. Ravish Chandra, whose mentorship shaped the scientific rigour of the methodology — from FAO-56 reference evapotranspiration computation to PM-KUSUM compliant system sizing and cost estimation frameworks.

About This Tool

The SPVWPS Design & Sizing Tool is a web-based decision support system for the optimal design of Solar Photovoltaic Water Pumping Systems for agricultural irrigation. It integrates real-time climatological data from NASA POWER API with FAO-56 crop water requirement models to compute accurate pump hydraulic power, solar PV array sizing, and PM-KUSUM aligned cost estimates — eliminating the need for manual spreadsheet calculations that are prone to significant oversizing errors.

ET₀ Computation

FAO-56 Penman-Monteith (Eq. 6) — full Rns, Rnl, Δ, γ implementation

Crop Coefficient

FAO-56 four-stage Kc interpolation with local climate adjustment (Eq. 62)

Effective Rainfall

USDA-SCS Technical Release No. 21 methodology

Pump Power

ρgQH / (η_pump × η_motor) with 20% ISO 9906 safety margin

Solar PV Sizing

E_daily / (PSH × PR) — PSH from NASA POWER GHI data

Cost Estimation

MNRE benchmark 2025–26 · PM-KUSUM 30/30/30/10 subsidy structure

Climate Data Source

NASA POWER API v2 — 22-year monthly climatological means

Location Input

Browser GPS (W3C Geolocation API) or manual lat/lon entry

References

Allen, R.G., Pereira, L.S., Raes, D. & Smith, M. (1998). Crop Evapotranspiration — Guidelines for Computing Crop Water Requirements. FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 56. Rome: FAO.
Habib, S., Tamoor, M., Zaka, M.A. et al. (2023). Technical modelling of solar photovoltaic water pumping system and evaluation of system performance and their socio-economic impact. Heliyon, 9(5), e16105.
Hilarydoss, S. (2023). Suitability, sizing, economics, environmental impacts and limitations of solar photovoltaic water pumping system for groundwater irrigation — a brief review. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 30, 71491–71510.
Cuadros, F., López-Rodríguez, F., Marcos, A. & Coello, J. (2004). A procedure to size solar-powered irrigation (photoirrigation) schemes. Solar Energy, 76(4), 465–473.
MNRE (2024). Comprehensive Guidelines for Implementation of PM-KUSUM Scheme. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India.
USDA-SCS (1967). Irrigation Water Requirements. Technical Release No. 21. Soil Conservation Service, USDA.
Maity, R. & Sudhakar, K. (2024). Agri-solar water pumping design, energy, and environmental analysis. Heliyon, PMC11550646.
NASA POWER Project. Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource (POWER) API v2. NASA Langley Research Center. Available at: power.larc.nasa.gov

Disclaimer: This tool is developed for academic and research purposes as part of a B.Tech final year project at RPCAU Pusa. Results are based on climatological averages from NASA POWER and standard agronomic coefficients from FAO-56. Actual field conditions may vary. Users are advised to validate outputs with local agronomic experts and certified solar system designers before implementation.

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