102.4kW Solar Water Pumping System — Jogoo Mutaita, Nakuru County
Harnessing the Kenyan sun to power a complete borehole-to-farm irrigation pipeline — 160 panels delivering 102.4kW of clean energy for year-round Pixie orange production, entirely off-grid.
The Challenge
Our client in Jogoo Mutaita, Nakuru County, needed a reliable, cost-effective way to pump water from underground boreholes and distribute it across an expansive Pixie orange farm — without depending on the national grid or expensive diesel generators.
The farm’s terrain presented a unique engineering puzzle. Water had to travel from deep boreholes up to a primary storage dam, then be lifted again to a second, elevated dam positioned on higher ground. From that elevated point, gravity and a drip irrigation network would carry the water directly to the root zones of hundreds of Pixie orange trees. Every stage of this journey had to be powered by the sun.
Our Solution
We designed and installed a 102.4kW solar water pumping system — a large-scale, multi-stage setup purpose-built for the site’s topography and water demands. The system centres on 160 high-efficiency 640W solar panels whose combined output delivers 102.4kW of peak power, more than enough energy to drive the pumps throughout the day.
A heavy-duty solar inverter converts the DC power generated by the panels into the AC power required by the water pumps. The inverter was selected to handle the high startup currents that submersible borehole pumps demand, ensuring smooth and reliable operation even during brief cloud cover.
The pumping infrastructure itself operates in three distinct stages — each carefully calculated for head pressure, flow rate, and energy consumption to maximise the system’s efficiency from sunrise to sunset.
Stage 1 — Solar Array
160 × 640W solar panels generate 102.4kW of clean power, converted by the inverter to drive the entire pumping chain.
Stage 2 — Borehole to Dam 1
Submersible solar water pumps extract groundwater from the boreholes and deliver it into the primary storage dam.
Stage 3 — Dam 1 to Elevated Dam 2
A booster pump lifts water from Dam 1 to Dam 2, which sits on elevated ground to create the pressure head needed for irrigation.
Stage 4 — Dam 2 to Drip Irrigation
Gravity feeds water from the elevated dam through drip irrigation lines, delivering precise moisture to every Pixie orange tree.
Technical Specifications
Key components that make this system tick.
Solar Panels
Total Output
Inverter
Water Pumps
Storage
Irrigation
From borehole to harvest — powered entirely by the sun. Zero fuel costs, zero emissions, year-round water security for Nakuru’s finest Pixie oranges.
The Results
Since commissioning, the system has been delivering consistent, dependable water flow to the entire Pixie orange farm. The client has eliminated diesel fuel expenses entirely, replacing them with clean solar energy that costs nothing to run after the initial installation.
The two-dam configuration with elevation staging ensures that water pressure remains steady across every drip line, delivering the precise, controlled irrigation that citrus trees thrive on. This has translated directly into healthier trees, better fruit quality, and a longer growing season — even during the drier months when neighbouring farms struggle with water shortages.
Why Solar Water Pumping?
For agricultural operations across Kenya and East Africa, solar water pumping represents one of the highest-return investments a farmer can make. Grid electricity is expensive and unreliable in rural areas. Diesel generators are costly to fuel and maintain. A well-designed solar system, on the other hand, pays for itself within a few seasons and continues delivering free water for 25 years or more.
At 102.4kW, the Jogoo Mutaita installation demonstrates that solar is no longer limited to small domestic setups — it can comfortably power large-scale commercial agriculture, even where multi-stage pumping and significant elevation changes are involved.
Ready to Power Your Farm with Solar?
Whether you need a borehole pump for a small shamba or a full-scale irrigation system like this one, we design and install solar water pumping solutions tailored to your land and your crop.
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