The Government of India launched the “Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission” (JNNSM) in January 2010. The JNSSM overall target of 100 GW of grid-connected solar power by 2022. SIPs formed only a small portion of JNSSM work in the early phases due to the high cost of installation.
The Government of India released the “National Solar Pumping Scheme for Irrigation and Drinking” in 2014, with a target to support 1 million SIPs by 2020-21. In 2018, the Government of India announced its Kisan Urja Shakti evam Utthan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM) program for solarizing agriculture. Currently, there are over 200,000 solar irrigation pumps in India.
Gujarat launched a scheme called Surya Kisan Yojana (SKY) to solarize electric feeders supplying electricity to groundwater tubewells. So far, around 80 or so SKY feeders has been solarized. SoLAR project with work in Gujarat in close collaboration with GERMI to understand institutional aspects of the SKY scheme.

Distribution of SIPs in India (1 dot = 100 pumps)
Learning from solar micro-grid exercises in Gujarat The SoLAR-SA project in Nepal is planning to implement a Micro Gird (MG)-connected Solar Irrigation Pump (SIP) pilot in 2022. The Indian state of Gujarat, which has an impressive renewable energy portfolio, has already carried out similar projects on a much bigger scale.
Pretesting Household Questionnaires for SIP Impact Evaluation Study in Gujarat From 21st to 24th March 2022, Yashodha Yashodha, Post-doctoral Fellow, IWMI,ex-India country Lead travelled to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, to pre-test the household questionnaires for an impact evaluation study of various feeders under the Suryashakti Kisan Yojana (SKY) in Gujarat. Read more..
Exploratory Telephonic interviews with SKY farmers in Gujarat yields insights into the functioning of the SKY scheme. The state of Gujarat in India has rolled out Suryashakti Kisan Yojana (SKY)- a grid-connected solar pilot program in agriculture supported by..
Expanding on International Water Management Institute’s (IWMI) mission to provide sustainable and climate-friendly water solutions globally, IWMI..
Expanding on International Water Management Institute’s (IWMI) mission to provide sustainable and climate-friendly water solutions globally, IWMI..
From 28-30 July 2021, field visits were carried out in four feeders, viz., Parmeshwar and Gadhliya in Botad district and Ishnav and Panchalipura in Anand district of Gujarat.
Among the grid-connected solar pilots that have been executed in India, Suryashakti Kisan Yojana or the SKY scheme is the largest pilot program in the agricultural sector.
IWMI signed a 10-month contract with the Bengaluru-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE) as a part of its SDC-SoLAR project.
The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has entered into a 9-month contract with the Gujarat-based Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) as a part of its SDC-SoLAR project.
IWMI signed an agreement with Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited as part of its SDC-SoLAR project. This agreement shall be in place for three years that commence in November 2021.
From 30 November-2 December 2021, researchers from IWMI visited four feeders, viz., Parmeshwar and Gadhliya in Botad and Ishnav and Panchalipura in Anand, Gujarat.
To assess farmers’ perception of the Government of Gujarat’s SKY scheme (Suryashakti Kisan Yojana), IWMI researchers visited various feeders in a host of villages spread across the districts of Anand, Mehsana, Surendranagar and Bharuch in December 2021. |
Contact information
Deepak Varshney (Country Lead- India), Researcher – Impact Assessment, IWMI-New Delhi
Email: d.varshney@cgiar.org