Design of Stand-Alone Solar PV System to Pump Water to the Mtubatuba Village

Abstract

Currently, most of the villages around the continent of Africa have a shortage of water supply. This is due to the lack of infrastructure such as pipe lines, water treatment stations and lack of electricity supply. Mtubatuba village which is located 223 km from the city of Durban in South Africa, has a shortage of water supply which makes lives of the community difficult as the population continues to expand. The current water supply system is not running at full capacity due to the shortage of electricity supply to the community. Therefore there is a need to increase the supply of water to the village. The use of PV solar systems to pump water to villages has increased over the years and became the viable solution due to advantages such as: it does not need big infrastructure, less maintenance, less running cost and environmental friendly and systems provide affordable and sustainable power to pump water. Therefore, this paper presents the design of a stand-alone solar PV solar system to pump water to the Mtubatuba Village, in order to rectify the current situation of water shortage in the community. PV SYST was used to verify the design and to ensure the system will supply enough electricity. Reason being that PV systems are very economical.