A North East solar power firm has signed a deal that will see its products help farmers in the developing world.
County Durham firm Power Roll has signed an agreement with Indian firm Futurepump to explore the use of Power Roll’s solar films to power Futurepump’s irrigation pumps for rural agriculture.
Many small farms in the developing world irrigate land with water pumps powered either by diesel generators, which are polluting, or grid electricity, which can be unreliable.
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With crops such as rice requiring large amounts of water, fuelling irrigation systems with solar power offers a potential solution to the problem. The lightweight film developed by Power Roll means pumps can be powered in a cost-effective way that is also easily transportable to different locations around farms.
Don Scott, chief commercial officer at Power Roll said: “Futurepump supports the immediate needs of rural farming communities – pumping water to grow food – and we want to help those communities with easy to use and cheaper pumping solutions.
“Research tells us that, in India alone, there are still over one million diesel generators being used to pump water for agriculture. Through our partnership with Futurepump, we look forward to providing a cheaper, cleaner, safer, and more resilient water management solution for those communities.”
Power Roll has developed a flexible and lightweight solar film it says is capable of producing green electricity and is up to 10 times cheaper to make than conventional panels.
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Last year the company, which was founded in Washington, moved to Jade Business Park in Murton and created 30 new jobs as it scaled up production of its solar film. Toby Hammond, managing director at Futurepump, said: “Power Roll’s solar film has the potential to radically reduce the direct costs of a solar pump solution.
“While traditional silicon PV panels have been effective in generating the energy for our pumps to date, they can be quite challenging to move, clean, and maintain. A more portable solution would be much easier for our customers to handle, as they typically need to move their pumps around their farms regularly.
“Adopting Power Roll’s solar film also maintains our plug and play approach – we want to deliver solutions that just work out of the box with no specialist technical installation.”