I got two queries about solar energy in terms of pond keeping last week so I thought it might be beneficial to provide my thoughts on solar energy in a pond environment.

The concept is great especially if you live in sunny climates like I do in Johannesburg (my queries were from Hawaii and California by the way) but if you
live in the UK type of average climate such products are probably not for you.

Even in my type of climate my experience with a fountain pump was very poor.

The first query I got was asking for advice on solar powered pumps with "humph .." or power. To the best of my knowledge powerful solar pumps in terms of head or volume are just not available. The reason is the largish amount of electricity required for such an operation.

Solar power is capable of supplying the power ... you just make sure the panel collecting the sun's rays and converting this into electricity is big enough.

However the problem arises when the sun sets. Power generation stops and unless you have a very large battery (charged during sunlight hours) any equipment will stop working. A battery with sufficient power to run a pond pump delivering say 500 gallons per hour would quickly use up the power stored in a small battery and that assumes the device came with a rechargeable battery in the first place.

Solar equipment with rechargeable batteries do exist but the cost for most pond keepers would be prohibitive.

This first query lead onto a very interesting one from Hawaii. This reader lives in a remote part of Hawaii and had already built a fairly large pond before he bought my book.