PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF LOCALLY ASSEMBLED SOLAR POWERED IRRIGATION PUMP

Hegazi, A.; Awady, M. N.; Hegazi, M. M.; Elgindy, R. W.

doi:10.21608/mjae.2010.107150

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF LOCALLY ASSEMBLED SOLAR POWERED IRRIGATION PUMP

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Ass. lecturer, soil & water Res. Center, Atomic Energy Auth., Egypt.

² Prof. Emt., Ag. Eng. Dept., Fac. Ag., A. Shams U., Egypt.

³ Prof. and Head Soil and Water Res. Dept., Atomic E. Authority, Egypt.

10.21608/mjae.2010.107150

Abstract

Solar powered pump motor is a special DC motor normally manufactured in advanced countries such as Germany, USA, etc. To obtain PVP (Photovoltaic pumps) users in Egypt must import them from abroad. This study was conducted to modify a locally assembled solar powered irrigation pump. A direct coupled photovoltaic pumping system has been assembled and installed in the Egyptian desert in Inshas at the Nuclear Research Center (31^O 21' E, 30^O 17' N). Eight hundred Watts DC motor with brushes was modified to match unsteady PV generator current output. The DC motor was supplied with PV generator current, which was divided between 9 and 4 modules. The 9 modules were connected to the rotor and the 4 modules to the stator field. The motor was tested without load for several hours in situ and was coupled to the centrifugal pump. Pump-set output was tested at different insolation levels and a relationship was carried out from observed data. Monthly solar insolation for ten years period was obtained from a program named "Meteo-Norm" software in order to predict and calculate the average daily pumping system water delivery in cubic meters per month. The system showed flexible response to the PV generator output power demonstrated in DC motor RPM and consequently water delivery.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Agricultural Irrigation and Drainage Engineering

References

Betka A. and A. Moussi; 2004. Performance optimization of a photovoltaic induction motor pumping system, Renewable Energy, 29:2167-2181.

Bione J.; O. C. Vilela and N. Fraidenraich; 2004. Comparison of the performance of PV water pumping systems driven by fixed, tracking and V-trough generators, Solar Energy, 76:703-711.

Mayer O. and J. Mueller; 1996. Photovoltaic und ihre anwending in Bewaesserungs-systemen, Wasserwirtschaft, 86(4): 190-193.

Merino, G. G.; L. O. Lagos and J. E. Gontupil; 2008. Monitoring and evaluation of a direct coupled photovoltaic pumping system, App. Eng. in Ag., 24(3): 277-284.

Mueller J.; S. Algohary, A. Hegazi and K. Koeller; 1998. Solar power drip Irrigation for orchards in remote areas, 13th Int'l Congress on Agric. Eng., Rabat (Morocco), 4:279-287.

Mueller J.; K. Koeller, S. Algohary and A. Hegazi; 1998. Solar power drip Irrigation in Egypt, Landtechnik , 53(3) : 138-139.

Pande P.C., A.K. Singh, S. Ansari, S.K. Vyas and B.K. Dave; 2003. Design development and testing of a solar PV pump based drip system for orchards ,Renewable Energy, 28, 385–396.

Short, T.D. and P. Thompson;- 2003, Breaking the mould: solar water pumping -the challenges and the reality, Solar Energy, 75: 1–9.