The objective of this research is to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) to ease the decision-making process related to the use of solar energy in irrigation. The DSS assesses the economic and environmental viability of Solar Powered Irrigation Systems (SPISs) in comparison to the conventional energy sources such as power grids and diesel. The user friendly DSS can be used by farmers and irrigation managers for the optimization of SPISs by evaluating their feasibility under different scenarios. The latter consider energy and water storage, energy source (solar, grid and diesel) as well as the hybridization between fuel-solar and/or grid-solar energy, taking into account the financial, technical and environmental aspects. The optimization process is based on the minimization of the total Life Cycle Cost (LCC).
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The matching between water demand, irrigation scheduling and daily solar radiation, considered as the technical reliability of the system, is imposed and the economic feasibility (LCC) and environmental impacts (CO2 emissions) of the system are evaluated. The DSS has been tested in a case study and the obtained results have shown that the stand-alone SPIS scenario where the total energy moves from solar modules directly to the pump is the best solution in terms of both LCC (13,572.7 €) and CO2 emissions (zero emission). The fuel-hybridized system (80% of energy from fuel and 20% from solar modules) is the least favourable solution in terms of LCC, with a total cost of 41,792.8 €, and the scenario of fuel-powered system is the least environmentally friendly solution with a total CO2 emission of 6,583.2 Kg over the project lifetime.
