Photovoltaic Water Pumping Research Articles

Design optimization of solar PV water pumping system

Abstract Utilization of solar photovoltaic (PV) as a power source in water pumping applications has emerged as one of the valuable solar applications. Solar PV water pumping system is used to fulfill the demand of water in the field of irrigation, livestock watering, and village water supply. Understanding of system design and selection of appropriate design parameters are essential to attain consistent and economical performance of any system. To design a solar water pumping system collection of the information regarding the system components and local climate data of the location are required. This information helps to obtain preferred design and results. In the present paper design optimization of PV system is done by simulation software tool PVsyst 5.52. This simulation software helps to design the system and shows how the different parameters affect the system performance results. Selection of PV array, controller, pumping unit, water supply network is needful to fulfill design requirements. The performance evaluation of a system located at Karansar, Jaipur (Rajasthan) is done with help of simulation software by using existing local data. The theoretical and simulation results are used to understand the system design and its performance by taking different parameters into consideration.

Self‐governing single‐stage photovoltaic water pumping system with voltage balancing control for a four‐phase SRM drive

This work deals with an efficient and reliable solution of a standalone solar water pumping system using a 4-phase SRM (Switched Reluctance Motor) drive. Only a mid-point converter is used to drive the SRM as well as to achieve the MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking Algorithm) operation. The elimination of DC-DC converter offers a fast dynamic response with enhanced system efficiency. An online flux optimization with single pulse mode of SRM drive is developed and implemented. The developed control scheme eliminates the need of any phase current sensor, and the motor speed is fully governed by the available PV array power. The developed control technique removes the need for any phase current sensor and the speed of the motor is regulated through available solar power. A deviation free MPPT technique is also implemented in this system to overcome the drift problem present in the conventional P&O (Perturb and observe) technique. The appropriateness of the proposed system with developed control is demonstrated through its performance assessment utilizing simulation and test results obtained through an experimental prototype.

Study and comparison results of the field oriented control for photovoltaic water pumping system applied on two cities in Morocco

In this papier, a low-cost solar photovoltaic water pumping system based on an induction motor without the use of chemical energy storage is presented. In literature, we can find several Maximum Power Point Tracking Algorithms, the choice of the algorithm is according to the nature of application. In this article, Variable Step Size Incremental Conductance MPPT method has been developed since it is fast and has less oscillations. The studied photovoltaic pumping system contains a centrifugal pump which is driven by a three-phase asynchronous motor. To control the water flow, the field-oriented control has been implemented. The control system is applied on two cities with different climatic conditions to evaluate their performance. The photovoltaic pumping system is developed using the MATLAB/Simulink software to discuss the results obtained. Consequently, the proposed MPPT based on the incremental conductance variable step shows good performances in terms of efficiency and tracking speed.

Intelligent Algorithm Based Maximum Power Point Tracking of Photovoltaic Solar Pump

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) system is pollution free energy source. PV panel have maximum power at unique point that point depends on temperature and irradiance of environment. Therefore it is necessary to track maximum power point for maximum efficiency. PV water pump system based on ANFIS controller produces poor performance under different irradiation and temperature condition. To improve performance of PV water pumping system PSOMPPT controller was implemented .compare the transient behavior of PV water pump by PSOMPPT with ANFIS based MPPT.

Assessment of Water Pumping System Powered By Solar Pump in Dry Areas

The rapid increase of desertification’s degradation is one of the worst environmental and economic threats for dry areas. Climate changes, very year impacts thousands of areas across the globe. The high cost of electricity and diesel-based fuel affects photovoltaic water pumping requirements for irrigation in many parts of the world. Solar irradiance in every dry place is extremely high due the drought increase. Thus, using solar energy for water pumping is a promising alternative sources of energy. Undertaking irrigation for a particular place and crop requires not only skills in the irrigation planning but also in the power requirement of the entire system. A reliable and accurate estimation of ET rate and irrigation water requirement (IWR) are soundly important in irrigation field. This sought to accurately estimate the irrigation power requirement by using PVsyst software on nine different pumps technologies combinations with different type of converters at 100m, 150m, 180m, and 200m of Total dynamic Head (TDH). The study has been conducted in four sections, the first section dealt with the assessment of the collected data, the second section with the simulations, the third one with the irrigation water requirement and finally irrigation water requirement. The results found in study show that IPR of a crop is majorly depend on the TDH. Among the nine combinations, results show that the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) technology is the best in terms of power requirement of selected the crop. Furthermore, the maximum and minimum values of the irrigation water requirement for millet crop was found to be 12.9 mm/day and 4.9mm/day respectively.

Performance of photovoltaic water pumping systems under the influence of panel cooling

In this paper, the performance of a photovoltaic water pumping system was experimentally investigated under the influence of panel cooling using air and water as working fluids. The experimental observations have been made under the climatic conditions of Coimbatore city in India during the year 2017. The system performance was evaluated in four different cooling modes such as: (a) with air cooling over the top surface of the panel; (b) with air cooling over the bottom surface of the panel; (c) with water cooling over the top surface of the panel and (d) with water cooling over the bottom surface of the panel. The performances of a photovoltaic water pumping system working with four different panel cooling modes are compared with the system without panel cooling. The economical and environmental impacts have been assessed for a period of twenty years. The results showed that, the water cooling provided over the bottom surface of the panel has significant performance enhancement when compared to other cooling modes. The economic assessment results showed that, the photovoltaic water pumping systems using water cooling over the bottom surface of the panel has payback period of 7.3 years with 13.7% return on investment and 10.9% internal rate of return. The trial experiments confirmed that, it is possible to reduce the carbon-dioxide emissions by about 20.4 tons during the period of twenty years life when compared to the grid connected water pumping systems powered by coal based power plants.

Borehole water level model for photovoltaic water pumping systems

Using photovoltaic energy to pump water from aquifers is an interesting solution to circumvent the low electricity grid coverage and provide improved domestic water access in off-grid areas in sub-Saharan Africa. When pumping and during the lifetime of a pumping installation, the borehole water level changes, which impacts the amount of energy required to extract water from the aquifer. In order to address alterations in energy requirements, this article develops a data-driven borehole water level model adapted to photovoltaic water pumping systems (PVWPS). The proposed model is applicable to all types of PVWPS and aquifers. It has been validated against experimental data from a pilot PVWPS located in a rural off-grid village in Burkina Faso having achieved more than 97% accuracy. Thanks to this borehole model, we have been able to assess the influence of the variability of groundwater resources on both the performance of PVWPS and on their optimal sizing. We show that the variation of the static water level can require a increase of the peak power of the PV modules of up to 100%. Nonetheless, the effect of the drawdown due to the pumping is negligible. This study can help companies, governments and non-governmental organizations to better take into account the variability and the sustainability of groundwater resources in the optimal sizing and monitoring of PVWPS.

Numerical Performance Evaluation of Solar Photovoltaic Water Pumping System under Partial Shading Condition using Modern Optimization

Renewable energy is an attractive solution for water pumping systems particularly in isolated regions where the utility grid is unavailable. An attempt is made to improve the performance of solar photovoltaic water pumping system (SPVWPS) under partial shading condition. Under this condition, the power versus voltage curve has more than one maximum power point (MPP), which makes the tracking of global MPP not an easy task. Two MPP tracking (MPPT) strategies are proposed and compared for tracking MPP of SPVWPS under shading condition. The first method is based on the classical perturb and observe (P&O) and the other method is based on a Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA). Based on extensive MATLAB simulation, it is found that the SSA method can provide higher photovoltaic (PV) generated power than the P&O method under shading condition. Consequently, the pump flowrate is increased. But, under normal distribution of solar radiation, both MPPT techniques can extract the maximum power but SSA is considered a time-consuming approach. Moreover, SSA is compared with particle swarm optimization (PSO) and genetic algorithm (GA). The obtained results ensure the superiority of SSA compared with PSO and GA. SSA has high successful rate of reaching true global MPP.

Enhancing the Performance of Solar Photovoltaic Water Pumping System by Water Cooling Over and Below the Photovoltaic Array

Abstract Lower operating temperatures of the photovoltaic (PV) cells increase the performance and efficiency of any PV installation. The efficiency of solar photovoltaic water pumping system (SPVWPS) decreases considerably with the increase in the PV cell temperature. In this paper, the performance of a 2 hp SPVWPS has been investigated experimentally, for the influence of panel cooling, using water. The experimental observations have been made under climatic conditions of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur campus, India, during the year 2018. The performance was evaluated under four different cases: (a) without panel cooling, (b) with water cooling on the top of the panel surface, (c) with water cooling on beneath the surface of the panel, and (d) with water cooling beneath the surface of the panel using jute. The effect of different cooling cases on the various performance parameters such as discharge, power output, pump efficiency, and system efficiency has been analyzed and discussed. The results showed that the water cooling on the top of the panel and beneath the surface of the panel with jute has considerable influence on performance enhancement when compared with other cases.

System design of smart solar photovoltaic water pump in Indonesia

Indonesia has a vast agricultural land. However, during the dry season, agricultural land does not get enough water. The problem can be solved by using the abundant amount of solar light during the dry season. It is Smart Solar Photovoltaic Water Pump (SSPWP). This research is system design of SSPWP. It consists of Photovoltaic panel, solar charger control, accumulator, inverter, water pump, mobile phone, and alarm. The working principle of the system is a solar cell in Photovoltaic panel exposes solar light then it produces direct current electricity. It is supplied to the water pump to irrigate farm. This system is connected to a mobile phone so that farmer can control irrigation for their farm automatically. System design consists Electric water Pump 220 Volt AC 200 Watt, with four Photos voltaic panels 12 – 36 Volt 180-Watt Peak Maximum power 720 Watt, and 72 Ampere Hour Battery.

Crowdfunding preferences for a sustainable milk product with integrated photovoltaic water pumping system in China

This paper studies the role of potential investors in financing renewable energy systems—specifically, relating to crowdfunding as a financing mechanism, with the enhancement of internet and social-media tools. The research question in this study is whether crowdfunding with a novel socio-technical product reward program attracts potential customers to a more sustainable milk product with a specific integrated photovoltaic water pumping (PVWP) system. The particular case study we empirically investigated is product reward crowdfunding in dairy milk production in China. The milk production chain was supplied by PVWP system integration, which generated solar energy both for feed production for dairy cows and for the operation of dairy farms. 48 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted between the research team and customers in order to perform qualitative analyses of the determinants of customers’ milk purchase behaviors. In addition, 357 online surveys were collected for quantitative analysis. Binary and ordered probit regressions were employed to use survey date to systematically estimate purchase intention and willingness-to-pay for sustainable milk. Customer behaviors, environmental consciousness, and individual socio-demographic factors were investigated as potential explanatory variables. Over 82% of the survey participants showed intentions to purchase the sustainable milk with the PVWP system. In the survey and interview samples, results showed that milk quality, nutrition improvement, emissions reduction, and environmental benefits attributed to the integrated PVWP system were the major factors considered by interviewees who showed intentions to purchase the crowdfunded dairy milk. Regression model results suggested that potential customers with higher income levels, and those of parenting age, and those with young children or planning to have children, had a higher willingness-to-pay than other customers for the crowdfunded sustainable dairy milk. The familiarity with and popularity of online shopping and pre-sale purchases in China made customers more open to and proactive towards pre-pay and crowdfunding mechanisms. This article evaluated key factors which may influence potential customers for crowdfunding, and used a discrete choice model to estimate customers’ willingness-to-pay for reward-based projects. These results could help producers of sustainable milk products to identify potential target groups in China and estimate market demand. This exploratory study could provide a framework with both quantitative and qualitative assessment of crowdfunding for renewable energy systems in a national or international context.

Improvement control of photovoltaic based water pumping system without energy storage

This paper presents a simple standalone photovoltaic (PV) water pumping system (PVWPS) based on an induction motor (IM) without the use of chemical energy storage. The aim of this paper is improving the control performance of pumping system. The proposed method is based on an indirect field-oriented control (IFOC) which consists of operating the motor at optimum flux by minimizing the induction motor losses. Perturb ad observe (P&O) algorithm is used to extract the maximum possible power from the PV panel. The performance of the proposed approach is proved by real time implementation using a dSpace DS1005 system and compared with conventional IFOC without losses minimization. Results show that using the proposed method, the losses are reduced and the efficiency is increased by 12%, 2.5% and 5% under 375 W/m2, 750 W/m2 and daily profile respectively.

Neural network maximum power point tracking for performance improvement of solar PV water pumping system

A neural network maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller has been proposed in order to improve the performance of a photovoltaic water pumping system. The proposed neural network MPPT controller has been trained using inputs and output data collected using the conventional P&O algorithm. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm has been studied successfully using a DC motor-pump powered by 36 PV modules via a DC-DC boost converter controller using the proposed neural network MPPT algorithm. Comparative study results between the proposed neural network MPPT controller and P&O MPPT controllers using fixed and variable step size versions as well as experimental study results using the STM32F4 board in the hardware in the loop mode prove the efficiency of the proposed controller regarding all considered performances metrics, reducing as a consequence the response time and eliminating the steady-state oscillation leading by the way to an improvement of the whole system performances.

Technical, economic, and environmental modeling of solar water pump for irrigation of rice in Mazandaran province in Iran: A case study

Abstract In this study, the required pumping power and number of PV modules for a photovoltaic water pumping system (PVWPS) were determined with the aim of supplying the water demand in a rice paddy located in north of Iran. Also, a battery bank was utilized as a backup system to increase system reliability in autonomy days. The idea of using PVWPS during non-irrigation months of the year in order to earn money through the sale of electricity generation from solar panels to the grid is one of the main objectives of this research which has not been considered in the previous works. Also, in this research, economic and environmental aspects about PVWPS have been performed and the system performance has been compared with conventional diesel pumping systems (CPS). The results show that although the initial cost of PVWPS in off-grid mode is 2.14 times of the CPS initial cost, its operating and maintenance costs and total life cycle cost (LCC) are respectively 8.7 times and 29.9% lower than that of costs of CPS. Also, the initial cost of PVWPS in the on-grid mode is slightly more than about 2.41 times of the cost of the initial CPS, but its O & M and LCC costs are 7.25 times and 16% lower than those for CPS, while in the case of selling electricity to the grid, it could generate income of $ 8212 in project lifetime, which is equivalent to 59.9% of LCC of the system and results in reducing the costs by 189.2% compared with the final cost of the CPS. Additionally, from environmental viewpoint, the results showed that CO2 production for off-grid PVWPS during the lifetime of the project is 190–201 times lower than that for the CPS and compared with the supply of power to the motor pump from the grid, CO2 emissions reduced 16.96 times. Also, by replacing the CPS with PVWPS during irrigation period, it can save about 1820–1722 L of diesel fuel and 85 L of engine oil. Additionally, in on-grid operation, the PVWPS leads to about 71% reduction in noise production than CPS.

Influence of Manually Adjustable Photovoltaic Array on the Performance of Water Pumping Systems.

This work presents a theoretical procedure to calculate various parameters needed for the installation of a photovoltaic water pump (PVWP) system. Specifically, the monthly optimum tilt angle of PV arrays is calculated, which will allow larger quantities of water to be pumped each month. For this, a simple performance optimization procedure is developed using solar radiation data. The investigations are based on the solar radiation data of New Delhi, India. The total amount of water pumped is compared with that by keeping the solar panels fixed throughout the year. The total amount of water that can be extracted by using manually adjustable arrays is found to be greater by 3–5%. This may be an alternative to an automatic sun tracker, which is not only expensive but also requires more space and maintenance. This method allows for analyzing the performance of low‐cost water pumping systems that may be used for both domestic and irrigation purposes.

Dynamic mathematical model design of photovoltaic water pumping systems for horticultural crops irrigation: A guide to electrical energy potential assessment for increase access to electrical energy

Abstract In developing countries where most population does not have access to the conventional electricity network and depends on agriculture for their subsistence, the agricultural sector has been negatively affected by the low coverage of the national energy network in areas with potential for irrigation. The low index of the population with access to electricity leads to the development of affordable and clean energy for agricultural and domestic uses. Photovoltaic water pumping systems for irrigation (PVWPSI) have been widely used to increase access to energy for irrigation in many countries and several models' design are being developed to improve their performance and deployment. However, during the PVWPSI design, many of the existing models’ somehow fail by considering the water demand as constant throughout crops productive cycle. In this paper, a new dynamic mathematical model design of PVWPSI is presented as a guide tool to electrical energy potential assessment for irrigation and supply other energy demands through the horticultural crops water demand characteristic in its different development phases. In this context, a PVWPSI design is made, using as a case study a typical 0.5ha for tomato production in Boane district, Mozambique. The results show that, generally horticultural crops have four development phases. Yet, PVWPSI should be sized according to the crop development phase, whose water demand is maximum. The tomato sizing phase is the flowering, and the daily averages surplus electrical energy in the system in the four tomato development phases, after irrigation, are 5.02 kWh, 2.87 kWh, 1.02 kWh, and 2.55 kWh, that can be saved and redirected to cover other electrical energy needs.

Optimization and control of water pumping PV systems using fuzzy logic controller

The aim of this work is to search for better control and optimization of a photovoltaic (PV) water pumping system (PWPS) using the induction motor. A proposed method based on Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC) is introduced and investigated to improve the conventional Direct Torque Control (DTC). Variable step size Perturb and observe (P&O) is used to extract the maximum possible power from the PV panel. The validation of the control strategy is ensured by reducing the high torque, stator flux ripples and current harmonics in induction machine and increasing pumped water flow. Simulation results of the DTC based on FLC are compared with those of the conventional DTC using MATLAB/SIMULINK. The comparison results show the effectiveness of the FLC controller in terms of torque and flux ripples reduction, and daily pumped water.

Performance investigations of solar photovoltaic water pumping system using centrifugal deep well pump

Photovoltaic technology is an effective, reliable and rapidly developing technology to convert solar energy into electrical energy. In the recent years, the need and demand of solar photovoltaic water pumping system has been increased as a stand-alone water pumping system to pump water in remote, desolate and mountainous region for end use of livestock watering and rural/urban water supply system. For a required pumping head, photovoltaic array configuration and its size (peak power rating, Wp) affect the flow rate of pumped water, economy and performance of solar photovoltaic water pumping system. The recent work is aimed to study performance of a directly coupled solar photovoltaic water pumping system at different pumping heads (2 bar, 3 bar, 4 bar, and 5 bar) and different photovoltaic array configurations (3S?2P, 4S?2P, 5S?2P, 6S, 7S, and 8S) for the real meteorological conditions of the Vidarbha region, central India (Nagpur). A comparative study has been done to investigate the head effect on the optimum photovoltaic array configuration, pump and pumping system total efficiency by performing experiment on the centrifugal deep well pump (SQF 5A-7), with 6-10 photovoltaic modules (200 W each) with various configurations and different heads. It is concluded that the 4S?2P and 5S?2P configurations are most optimized array to provide optimum energy at all pumping heads.

An Embedded Solar‐Powered Irrigation System Based on a Cascaded Fuzzy Logic Controller

AbstractThis study examines the automatization of irrigation tasks of solar photovoltaic water pumping systems (SPVWPS) in greenhouse applications. A prototype of an embedded control system has been developed for SPVWPS battery‐coupled architectures. The new design aims at improving the safety of solar irrigation facility by avoiding the exhaustion of pumping resources (water and energy) while watering. The availabilities of pumping resources are introduced as new requisite inputs of a fuzzy logic‐based control system (FLC) so that it can produce adequate and safe irrigation durations. The FLC design consists of two cascaded devices. The first device uses climate data to estimate durations for watering that satisfy crop needs. The second device uses actual resource levels to evaluate the pumping capacity of the SPVWPS regarding requested durations. Watering is performed whenever the pumping capacity of the system represents more than 25% of the total requirement. Test results from an experimental greenhouse prove the effectiveness of the decision‐making mechanism that prevents scheduling unsuccessful watering tasks.

Control and optimisation of photovoltaic water pumping system using sliding mode

Control and optimisation of photovoltaic water pumping system using sliding mode