DESIGN AND OPERATING ASSESSMENT OF SOLAR PV UNDERGROUND WATER PUMPING SYSTEM IN UPPER EGYPT

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Agric. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Agric., Zagazig Univ., Egypt.

Abstract

This work presents a detailed approach to the optimum design, performance and economical assessment of a solar PV underground water pumping system using AC submersible pump and motor based on the proposed daily water demands for a farm allocated in remote area in Upper Egypt under the least solar radiation conditions during the winter season. The performance assessment after the PV pumping system installation was performed taking into consideration the insolation period, water flow rate, hydraulic power, PV electric output power, pump and pumping system efficiencies. The assessment results indicated that the insolation period extended to 6 hours from 9:00 to 15:00 where the PV current affected strongly by the variation of the solar radiation intensity and consequently the motor speed, while the voltage remained stable. The data revealed that the solar radiation has high correlation (R2=0.9618) with water flow rate due to the continuous changes in the current where the PV system gave average daily flow rate of 49.50m3/h that higher than the design flow rate of 48m3/h. Moreover, maximum hydraulic pump power was 7518.40 W (at noon) which is higher than the designed hydraulic power of 7394.5 W and this means that the pump efficiency was exceed the suggested efficiency of 75% during designing of the PV system. Generally, the average pump and PV pumping system efficiencies were 64.8 and 13.10%, respectively. High validation was proved through the assessment with the design aspects of the PV pumping system and good performance of the selected pump, motor and PV configuration. Ultimately, the PV pumping system was saved the annualized and pumping costs with 47.33 and 36.36%, respectively, comparing to the diesel-pumping system at the same well.

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