Project description
Small farms look to solar power to water crops
Irrigation is essential for effective crop production. However, 80 % of the world’s cultivated areas lack access to irrigation due to infrastructure and grid deficiencies. Conventional irrigation pumps are designed for extensive irrigation and are big and heavy. They are not suitable for remote areas that do not have grid connection and where fuel is not always available. In this context, the EU-funded sunlight2.0 project will bring to market an affordable, portable, highly efficient and user friendly solar water pump. It runs with solar energy and facilitates the irrigation of inaccessible sites, eliminating fuel/electricity costs and reducing transportation costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
Objective
Ennos is a Swiss company founded in 2006 as a spin-off of Berne University of Applied Sciences under the lead of Prof Dr. Andrea Vezzini, who has a long track record in solar energy and motor drive systems. We are an interdisciplinary team of experienced engineers and marketing experts, who have dedicated our efforts to develop and demonstrate sunlight2.0 a second generation of highly efficient, portable solar-powered irrigation pumps targeted for smallholders in isolated rural areas.
There are more than 570 million farms in the world, most of them being located in distant rural areas. Out of those farms, about 84% are smaller than 2 ha. Nowadays, bigger crop areas have to be put under irrigation to increase productivity due to a growing population that has to be fed. This implies a growing need for energy and water resources. Besides, 16% of the global population did not have access to electricity in 2016, mainly in rural areas where the majority of smallholders are located. Therefore, smallholder farmers need competitive solutions, economically affordable and efficient and that enable them to increase their profits.
sunlight2.0 is a portable and user friendly pump which is highly efficient and affordable to smallholders. sunlight2.0 has almost no maintenance costs and allows farmers to save the cost of diesel or electricity producing zero emissions. During Phase 2 project we expect to increase the efficiency of the pump, reduce weight and optimize production costs compared to our previous sunlight1.0 product. Completion of Phase 2 project and will require €1 million investment, that will provide an estimated ROI of 5.7 by 2025.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy solar energy
- engineering and technology civil engineering water engineering irrigation
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences hydrology
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.3.3. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.2.1.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
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H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-SMEInst-2016-2017
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
2560 NIDAU
Switzerland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.