So, 2020 is coming to a close – is it just us or did that sneak up rather quickly? It is no secret that this year has presented a lot of challenges for many people and businesses, and it has been no different for us here at Futurepump.
But it’s also been inspirational to see our team, supporters, and customers pull together across the globe and make opportunities out of these challenges, so we can come out of this year even stronger together.
REFLECTING ON OUR 2020
Through all this support and dedicated work, we have had some major developments this year.
First, we launched the most affordable solar water pump on the market – The Futurepump SE1.
We are very proud of our latest solar pump, being able to offer smallholder farmers an affordable, reliable, and high-quality solar pump that will keep their farms productive for years.
What’s more, we can now offer our range of solar pumps for sale directly from our factory and they will be appearing with even more of our local distribution partners throughout 2021.
We also moved into our new, purpose-built factory ahead of schedule thanks to our amazing team in India. We have now tripled our capacity, to being able to build over 2,000 solar pumps a month.
The two-acre factory site includes over 1000 sqm of custom-designed buildings including shop floors, an R&D centre, offices, a canteen and on-site accommodation. We are looking forward to its full completion in 2021.
Futurepump’s customers continue to make strides too. Through our remote monitoring technology, we can see that Futurepump solar pumps out in the field have pumped over 1 billion litres of water, saved nearly $100,000 in fuel costs for our farmers, and produced over 12,000kWh of energy from the sun!
PROGRESS IS STILL BEING MADE
This time last year, we were reflecting on the momentous global push being made to highlight and demand action on climate change.
2020 has not let up with the impacts of climate change either, from the devastating Australian forest fires back in January, to the widespread locust outbreaks in Eastern Africa and the increased extreme weather events across the world.
Whilst those climate marches, with thousands and thousands of people, seem very far off with the social distancing of 2020, their spirit has lived on. It is clearer now than ever, that with the correct political willpower, a just recovery from this year can achieve a fairer and more sustainable world. For example, there are promising signs with the change in U.S. government and the new administration’s assurances to sign back up to the Paris Agreement.
We are as determined as ever to keep pushing for these changes and lead by example throughout 2021 and beyond.
In other industry news, our friends at SunCulture (a solar irrigation business in Kenya) have just announced their closure of a $14 million investment round. This is a superb achievement by the SunCulture team as well as a strong sign that things are hotting up in the solar pumping space.
What you’ve all been reading:
Our blog has been very active this year. It has been great to share more tips and tricks as well as developments across the solar powered irrigation industry.
Here’s a list of some of our most popular reads:
- What are water pumps for irrigation?
- Advantages and disadvantages of solar water pumps
- What is solar irrigation?
- What irrigation options are there for smallholder farmers?
- 3 ways to start getting the most from the soil on your farm
And don’t miss out on our most recent blog: 7 steps for turning your farm into a business
What you’ve all been watching:
We’ve been passing many milestones over on our YouTube channel this year too. On our channel, we are sharing videos about solar pumps, support directly from our technical team, as well as even more tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your farm.
Grab some popcorn, and have a watch of some of our most popular videos this year:
Be sure to subscribe too, we’ve got a lot more videos coming out next year that you won’t want to miss.
LOOKING FORWARD TO 2021
We have some great new projects, developments and even opportunities for you to join us on our journey coming up next year! So be sure to follow us here and across our social media to be the first to know – and even drop us a message if you would like to get regular updates from us directly.
From all of us at Futurepump, we hope you have had many reasons to celebrate this year too and we wish you all a very happy new year! Stay safe 😊
We will be taking a break over the holidays from Wednesday 23rd December to Monday 4th January and we will respond to all comments and messages then – thank you.
