Prediction of Hourly Flow Rate of a Photovoltaic Water Pumping System in the Desert of Tunisia

Abstract

In this paper, a simple algorithm has been developed and experimentally validated for estimating the performance of a photovoltaic (PV) water pumping system without battery storage (in direct link with the sun), also the optimum tilt angle of the PV array has been optimized. This simulation program uses the hourly global solar radiation and the hourly ambient temperature as the input, moreover, the characteristics of region (latitude, longitude, ground albedo) and characteristics of PV water pumping system (orientation, inclination, nominal PV module efficiency, NOCT, PV array area, PV temperature coefficient, miscellaneous power conditioning losses, miscellaneous PV array losses, temperature of reference, moto-pump efficiency, and inverter efficiency). The method has been validated by predicting the performance of two PV pumping systems installed in an isolated site in the desert of Tunisia. The daily and the monthly flow rate of the systems predicted by the method have been compared with experimental measurements. Difference of predicted and measured flow rate values is about 15%.