The Solar Tanda

The RM Tulpule Charitable Trust provided funding for the Solar Tanda Project in October 2021 for the purpose of providing drinking water to the residents of Tanda village, in Osmanabad district, about 100 miles from Pune. The current situation in this Tanda (settlement) was that they had a borewell, water tank and a pump for fetching water. However, the lack of electricity was a major problem which would sometime be not available for 15 days. As a result, the Tanda residents had to go to farmer’s wells which were 4-5 Km away and pay for water.

The Trust provided funding for the installation of a set of solar panels, batteries and inverters to run the motor. To ensure regular daily access to water, a backup grid connection was also provided as part of the installation. The project had to overcome several difficulties. The first of which was that the motor available was single phase and was drawing far too much current compared to the available capacity of the Solar panels and Battery packs. The system had to be therefore upgraded.

The entire installation of the turnkey project was completed in 15 days by Mr. Shishir Sathe through his company (Sathe Solar Power Controls) in Solapur. The project was managed by Mr. Abhijit Kapre, Principal at the Jnana Prabhodhini Harali (JPH) school. More information about the Solar Tanda project can be found in (Solar Tanda Project Background Information.doc).