One of the questions I get asked regularly is:
"How much solar and battery do I need to run my bore pump?"
The answer is usually simpler than people think.
Most farmers already understand their water requirements very well. They know how much water they need, what time of year demand is highest, and roughly how long their pumps need to run.
Where we come in is understanding the power side of it.
At MyEnergy Engineering, we design remote power systems for stations, farms, irrigation systems, and remote infrastructure across Australia, and bore pumps are one of the most common loads we work with.
The first thing we need to know is the size of the pump and how long it needs to run each day.
For example, if you have a 2.2kW bore pump that runs for 5 hours per day, the system needs around 11kWh of energy daily. That becomes the starting point for sizing the solar and battery system.
From there, we look at how the property actually operates.
Some sites only need pumping during the middle of the day. Others need water pressure available 24/7. Some sites pump heavily through summer but barely run in winter. Others have large water storage tanks, which means the majority of pumping can happen while solar production is at its highest.
This is why there’s no one-size-fits-all answer.
A lot of people assume:
"I’ve got a 2kW pump, so I only need 2kW of solar."
Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work like that.
The solar not only has to run the pump, but also recharge batteries, cover cloudy periods, and maintain operation through different seasons. Depending on the site, a 2.2kW pump may realistically require 5–8kW of solar to operate reliably year-round.
Battery sizing also depends on what the system is expected to do.
Are we:
Those answers completely change battery sizing.
In many agricultural applications, winter pumping demand is much lower than summer demand. That’s important because solar production is also lower in winter. Good system design is about matching the power system to the real operating pattern of the property rather than simply designing around worst-case assumptions.
Generators also still play an important role in many remote pumping systems.
A lot of the systems we design are hybrid systems where:
The goal is often not removing the generator entirely. The goal is reducing fuel usage, runtime, maintenance, and wear while improving overall reliability.
Every property is different, but the process is usually straightforward once we understand:
Farmers generally know the water side extremely well.
Our job is turning that information into a reliable power system that works properly long term.
At MyEnergy Engineering, we specialise in remote and off-grid power systems designed for real-world conditions — because when it comes to water infrastructure, reliability matters more than anything else.