A novel solar photovoltaic system with pumped-water storage for continuous power at constant voltage

Abstract

A novel off-grid small power generation system using locally available sources is proposed in this paper for the areas, where the open-wells or the permanent sources of water are available. Although, the system can be installed anywhere, but its installation in remote and rural areas, where there is no access of electricity, can be an interesting application. The proposed system comprises of a solar photovoltaic (SPV) system, solar water pump, pico-hydro turbine-generator and pumped-hydro energy storage system. Its operation is quite different from all other existing SPV power generating systems. In this paper, an innovative power generation technique is developed, due to which the output power of the proposed system is absolutely unaffected by the changes that occur in solar irradiation. The proposed system does not require the use of batteries, inverter, transformer, and charging or controlling circuits at all. The attractive features of the system are simplicity, reliability and ability to generate continuous power at constant voltage irrespective of variations or absence of solar irradiation. The mathematical model of the proposed system has been developed in the paper. The simulation is carried out using real solar irradiation for performance evaluation of the proposed model.