Solar Livestock Water Pumps

Pump water for your animals with the power of the sun.

By Jeffrey R. Yago
Updated on May 27, 2025
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Photo courtesy Solar Power and Pump Co.
Utilizing a large stock tank will offer more backup water-storage capacity to carry your livestock through multiple days of limited pumping due to cloudy weather.

Utilize solar-powered pumps for pumping well water into solar livestock water tanks.

While it’s not unusual for farmers and ranchers to let their animals drink from a creek, pond, or other surface water source, many are switching to alternative methods of supplying drinking water to their livestock. Solar-powered water pumps are easy to install and are a very reliable way to pump water from a well to a ground-level stock tank, or from a surface source of water up to a higher elevation. Some government agencies will even provide cash grants to farmers and ranchers if they agree to fence off grazing lands from nearby creeks and streams and install an alternative means of water provision, such as a well that uses solar-powered pumping methods.

Solar Pump System Components

The most basic form of solar pumping consists of a small direct-current (DC) solar pump, a pump controller, one or more solar modules, a replacement well cap, electrical wiring, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) piping. Anyone who can use a screwdriver and pipe wrench should be able to assemble a solar pump kit. These systems are very basic. They don’t require power inverters or batteries, and working with 12- or 24-volt DC power is safer than connecting a 240-volt alternating-current (AC) pump to the electrical grid.

Solar pump. Systems requiring only a few gallons of water per minute from wells less than 100 feet deep will typically only need a small 12- or 24-volt DC submersible pump. Deeper wells or setups that need higher flow rates may require submersible pumps in the 48- to 90-volt DC range, powered by a much larger solar array. Solar-powered pumping systems are also available to pump surface water from a stream or lake up to a stock tank located at a higher elevation.

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