Blue Water, Green Wallet - Morocco

The electricity grid in rural Morocco can be unstable, so farmers have to use diesel or butane gas for their irrigation systems. Blue Water, Green Wallet, a project developed by EnergyVision, provides an autonomous, independent, renewable solar irrigation system. There is no need for government subsidies and no upfront investment. The farmer pays only when they use the system.

Fast facts:

This project replaces butane with solar energy;
It is a 100% off-grid system based on purely sustainable resources;
The system has an expected lifetime of 20+ years.

The problem

The electricity grid in rural Morocco is unstable, so farmers have to use diesel or butane gas for their irrigation systems. Butane is heavily subsidized, making it a cheap option for growing crops, but an unsustainable option environmentally and health-wise.

The solution

Blue Water, Green Wallet’s off-grid technology uses an efficient pump which works with solar panels and pumps up water from reservoirs throughout the day. The water reservoir stores the water in order to irrigate fields and crops at night (or whenever the farmer wants).

With Blue Water, Green Wallet’s “pay as you save” model, farmers are able to avoid large investments. There is no leasing, no shared savings and no guaranteed savings, but a guaranteed return model. A third party (e.g. ESCO) absorbs the investment, monitors the savings and the customer receives a certain, guaranteed financial return, even if the calculated savings are not fully generated. This allows farmers in Morocco to switch from butane to solar driven irrigation, a step they would most probably not take if they had to fully absorb the investment upfront.

Helping the planet

This project replaces polluting butane gas with a 100% off-grid system based on purely sustainable resources that has an expected lifetime of 20+ years.

Helping people

This activity provides more opportunities for economic activity in rural areas, as farmers no longer need to drive long distances to buy butane from far away central areas. This activity also has a wider social impact. The solar irrigation systems are a subsidy independent formula and allow the government to decrease its deficit due to butane subsidies. If less butane is consumed by farmers, the overall impact of the subsidies on the government’s budget decreases.

Scaling Up

This project offers customized financial models for solar irrigation and energy-efficiency in Morocco and South Africa. In both areas, proprietary technologies have been developed. Due to these proprietary technologies, EnergyVision can make firm financial commitments to customers through ‘guaranteed return’ energy savings projects (from design to delivery). EnergyVision is a technology driven project investor and they realize savings and environmental benefits (using renewable and natural resources instead of polluting diesel or butane gas) even for customers who are not primarily interested in environmental or climate effects.