## 3 Results
### Feasibility Assessment
A volume of 33.9 m\({}^{3}\)/d would equate to the water supply to a village of about 1350 people at a rate of 25 L per person per day. Total annual water requirement for the farm was calculated to be 8386 m\({}^{3}\)/a. Pump utilization rate was calculated to be 68% depending on the monthly fluctuations in water requirement, as the pump has to satisfy the water demand in the peak month, and it is under-utilized in the remaining months of the year. Different scenarios of crops, cropping patterns and planting dates can be built to optimize water requirements and pump utilization. The combinations are infinite; however, this will depend on the farmer's choice and other farming activities. Figure 2: Screen printout of the impacts of solar-powered groundwater pumping operated with MUS for the study area, generated with SPIS [50]. High scores indicate positive impacts, low scores indicate negative impacts. The results of the Market Assessment Tool [50] indicated a total score of 53.23% for market potential of SPIS in Greater Giyani Municipality with a number of factors being inconsequential and others being rated as important. The site has high market potential in terms of climatic and geophysical settings. Government interventions result in moderate market potential mainly due to the lack of policies and laws promoting solar energy. The involvement of development organizations results in high market potential. Financing by end users and institutions as well as the availability of alternative power sources, subsidies and costs result in moderate market potential. A low market potential score was obtained for technical capacity, mainly because of a lack of training programs and university curricula on solar technologies. However, awareness and adoption of solar technologies are increasing, and the presence of suppliers results in a high market potential. The significance of agriculture in the local economy is comparatively low compared to other sectors (e.g., mining and industry) resulting in marginal market potential. The relevance of land tenure is important, whilst the transportation and communication infrastructure are good but deemed to be inconsequential, both resulting in moderate market potential. The Farm Analysis Tool of SPIS [50] was used to perform a financial analysis for the design of solar-powered groundwater pumping systems for the farming case studies (Table 1). In this example, the calculation was performed for a hypothetical small-holder farm but based on realistic income and cost inputs. The emerging farmer has 5 ha of land under Permission to Occupy tenure; 2 ha are under rainfed seasonal crops (e.g., maize), 0.5 ha is under irrigation (three seasons of vegetable crops) and 2.5 ha are under fallow land in rotation. The farmer has 5 heads of cattle. Given these settings, it was calculated that the annual gross farm income is ZAR 334,500, the total annual costs are ZAR 82,900, resulting in an annual gross farm profit of ZAR 251,600. This value was retained for the calculation of the payback period of solar-powered groundwater pumping systems (Figure 3). In the real world, each case study farm may have different cropping patterns and the income and costs depend on the specific year, weather conditions and market prices. The Payback Tool of SPIS [50] was used to compare the financial feasibility of three different pumping options: solar-powered, grid-powered and diesel-powered. The gross farm profit was ZAR 251,600 a \({}^{-1}\) (calculated in the Farm Analysis Tool) and the proportion of profit to invest in paying off the pumping system was assumed to be 20% with an estimated inflation rate of 6%. The initial capital and running costs for the three options were estimated based on current market prices. For the grid-powered system, the pump power demand was estimated to be 2 kW, the required pump flow was 4.2 m\({}^{3}\)/h for 8 h of work per day (peak water demand was calculated to be 33.9 m\({}^{3}\)/d) with 180 d of irrigation per year. The cost of electricity was assumed to be 3 ZAR/kWh.