Small-scale irrigation pumping is one of the more attractive applications for solar power. Solar radiation tends to be at its most intense when the need for pumped water is greatest and the energy supply is available at the point of use, making the farmer independent of fuel supplies or electrical transmission lines. The main barriers at present to the wider use of solar pumps are their high costs combined with general unfamiliarity of the technology. A cheap and reliable solar pump, which could quite possibly be developed within the next few years, will have the potential to revolutionize Third World agriculture. This is why it is worth being aware of the potential of this promising new technology, even though it is probably not yet economically viable for irrigation.

Many solar pumps have been built and operated, so their technical feasibility is proven, but the technology is still immature with production running in dozens or hundreds of units per year rather than the thousands that must be manufactured before costs drop. Also, solar pumps tend to become economically viable in water-supply applications sooner than for irrigation, due to the much higher value that can be placed on drinking water; in fact, an economic case can already be made for using solar pumps for village water supplies given favorable operating conditions. Solar pumps for irrigation are only currently economically viable at very low heads where the power demand is extremely small. Nevertheless, significant technical developments coupled with cost reductions are being achieved and it can be expected that reliable and economically viable solar irrigation pumps will be available within the medium to long term.

There are two main methods for converting solar energy into power for driving a pump. Solar thermodynamic systems depend on using the heat of the sun to power an engine (steam or Stirling cycle), while solar photovoltaic systems convert solar radiation directly to electricity by means of photocells, and hence they can power an electric pump. The first successful solar thermodynamic systems were developed in France during the mid-nineteenth century; see Butti and Perlin, and Daniels, By 1900 most of the development effort had shifted to the USA, where several people were seeking to develop commercially viable solar pumping systems. However, although several solar steam engines were successfully demonstrated, they tended to cost several times as much as a conventional steam engine of the same power (although their fuel costs were, of course, free), which limited their commercial success. This work culminated in the construction in 1914, by an American called Frank Shuman, of what even today remains one of the largest and, for that matter most technically successful solar thermodynamic pumping systems. Developed in the USA, but installed at Media in Egypt to pump irrigation water, this unit incorporated hot water storage and could, therefore, drive an irrigation pump for 24 hours per day. After a few teething troubles, the Media solar pump was shown to develop 55 hp (40kW) and it could pump up to 1 300 m3/h (360 liters/sec). Under Egyptian conditions at that time the plant could pay back in competition with a steam engine in 2 years and could completely pay for itself in 4 years. Enormous interest ensued, and ambitious plans to install similar solar pumps in other parts of the world were initiated, but the First World War broke out and Shuman, the driving force behind solar pumps at that time, died before it ended. The cheap oil era that followed led to a lack of interest in solar power for pumping until the oil price increases of the 1970s.

A solar-powered pump is a pump running on electricity generated by photovoltaic panels or the radiated thermal energy available from collected sunlight as opposed to grid electricity or diesel run water pumps. The operation of solar-powered pumps is more economical mainly due to the lower operation and maintenance costs and has less environmental impact than pumps powered by an internal combustion engine. Solar pumps are useful where grid electricity is unavailable and alternative sources (in particular wind) do not provide sufficient energy.

Solar-powered water pumps can deliver drinking water as well as water for livestock or irrigation purposes. Solar water pumps may be especially useful in small scale or community-based irrigation, as large scale irrigation requires large volumes of water that in turn require a large solar PV array.[2] As the water may only be required during some parts of the year, a large PV array would provide excess energy that is not necessarily required, thus making the system inefficient.

Solar PV water pumping systems are used for irrigation and drinking water in India. The majority of the pumps are fitted with a 2000 watt - 3,700-watt motor that receives energy from a 4,800 Wp PV array. The 5hp systems can deliver about 124,000 liters of water/day from a total of 50 meters setoff head and 70 meters dynamic head. By 30 August 2016, a total of 1,20,000 solar PV water pumping systems have been installed in India and many other places around the world. Energy storage in the form of water storage is better than energy storage in the form of batteries for solar water pumps because there is no intermediary transformation of one form of energy to another. The most common pump mechanics used are centrifugal pumps, multistage pumps, borehole pumps, and helical pumps. Important scientific concepts of fluid dynamics like pressure vs. head, pump heads, pump curves, system curves, and net suction head are really important for the successful deployment and design of solar-powered pumps