ENVIRONMENTAL AND EARTH SCIENCES A publication of IIETA

RESEARCH JOURNAL
ISSN: 2369-5668 (Print), 2369-5676 (Online)
Vol. 3, No. 3, September 2016, pp. 41-43
DOI: 10.18280/eesrj.030302
Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 http://www.iieta.org/Journals/EESRJ

Solar Photovoltaic Water Pumping System for Pressurised Irrigation

Email: smoeeni@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Solar powered drip irrigation in the marriage of two systems that have enormous independent impact.
Solar powered pumps save potentially hours of labor daily in rural off-grid areas where water routing in
traditionally done by hand by woman. They are durable and immune to fuel shortage and in the medium-
to-long-term costs less than traditional diesel powered generators (e.g. Kohle et al. 2002). Automated
Drip Irrigation System provides a sustainable solution to workmanship that is needed for flooding
irrigation. The use of this photo-irrigation system will be able to contribute to the socio-economic
development. It is the proposed solution for the energy crisis for the Indian farmers. This system conserves
electricity by reducing the usage of grid power and easy to implement and environment friendly solution
for irrigation fields.

Keywords: Drip irrigation, Solar powered pumps, Solar photovoltaic’s, water pumping system,
irrigation, photovoltaic (PV) pumping system.

1. INTRODUCTION 2. PV APPLICATIONS

The aim of this study into provide small farmers in Solar panels are used in a variety of applications. The
developing countries with an affordable, eco-friendly and applications vary from small simple lanterns to large
easy to maintain irrigation method that promoters the elaborate power plants.
sustainable use of Photovoltaic energy. Astatine source of i) Rural and urban households for domestic purposes like
Power for irrigation include the use of gasoline and diesel lighting.
powered water pumps. It is risky for small farmer to retry on ii) Communities, small industries and institutions like
oil for food production given the fluctuation of prices. The schools, for lightingas well as for powering television sets,
use of photovoltaies to provide electricity crimination the computers, etc.
need to use gasoline or diesel. The benefit also applies to iii) Water pumping systems.
small scale and solar powered drip irrigation which when well iv) Telecommunications, as these systems are often
designed and implanted presents great potential for installed in isolated places with no other access to power.
productive uses of photovoltaic. v) Refrigeration of vaccines at health center in rural areas.
Such solar refrigerators are also utilized to store blood
plasma. WHO supports programmers that install solar power
for medical purposes.

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3. SYSTEM COMPONENTS Another important aspect would be the ability to model the
potential solar radiation, PV power output, and subsequent
The whole system of solar pumping includes the panels, water output for the purpose of irrigation scheduling.
support structure with tracking mechanism, electronic parts Photovoltaic powered water pumping systems (photo
for regulation, cables, pipes and the pump itself. irrigation) have been studied by researchers for many years.
i) Solar panels or modules: Solar panels are the main Studied mostly concentrated on DC motors because energy
components used for driving the solar pump. Several solar obtained from solar panel is DC (Lawrence et al, 1995;
panels connected together in arrays produce DC electricity, Dursun and Saying, 2005). These are shown that better results
interconnections are made using series or parallel were obtained for performance analysis (Kolhe et al. 2004,
combinations to achieve desired voltage and power for the Kolhe et. al, 2000) Drip irrigation system has advantages
pump. over flood irrigation, for bringing efficient utilization of water
ii) Solar Pump: Centrifugal or submersible pumps are sources, preventing erosion and growing of weeds (Cuadros
connected directly to the solar array using DC power et al, 2004), decreasing moisture stress (Pande et al, 2003),
produced by the solar panels. Solar pumps are available in no operation cost, providing opportunity for local energy
several capacities depending upon the requirement of water. sources and exhibiting a parallel point of view with water
iii) Support structure and tracking mechanism: Support requirement (Ghoneim, 2006). In terms of automation,
structure provides stability to the mounted solar panels and developed wireless technologies, researches focused on
protects them from theft or natural calamities. To obtain automatic irrigation with sensors in agricultural systems (Kim
maximum output of water, a manual tracking device is fixed and Evans, 2009, Stone et. al, 1985).
to the support structure. Tracking increases the output of The cost of solar PV has come down and cost of diesel has
water by allowing the panels to face the sun as it moves been regularly increasing. At present the cost of solar PV is
across the sky. very much less than diesel, solar PV cost shall be half of
iv) Foundations (array and pump): Foundations are diesel within three to four years, since approaching towards
provided for support structures and pump. grid parity. 400,000 telecom towers are associated with diesel
v) Electrical interconnections: A set of cables of generating sets having capacity 3 to 5 kW 60% Telecom
appropriate size, junction boxes, connectors and switches are towers located in urban and semi urban areas and 100%
provided along with the installation. located in the villages are run by diesel generating sets. In
vi) Earthling Kit: Earthling kit is provided for safety in fact, off-grid potential is unlimited in India and is about 20 to
case of lighting or short circuit. 25% potential of the world (Arora,2014). Solar water pumps
vii) Plumbing: Pipes and fittings required to connect the are often thought of as being an expensive technology, which
pump come as part of the installation. is not able to pump enough water and which is not durable.
How the solar pump system works However, solar water pumps have come a long way in25
A 50-Watt photovoltatic solar panel can power a 12-volt years and today there are solar pumps on the market which
pump, which can move 1,300 to 2,600 l/h. Standard plastic have improved on previous technology, e.g. Submersible
fittings and half-inch piping connect these elements to a water pumps which can pump u-p to 200 m heads: pumps that are
saving tank of 500 to 1,000 L.A study stand should be built able to pump larger volumes of water, e.g.” At 100 m, about
for the water tank to provide gravity flow, and a frame should 10,000 L/day; At 50 m, about 20,000 L/da. Above
also be constructed to provide the best angle for the solar performance can be doubled through dual system (if the
panels. Multiple filters are needed to protect the life of the borehole allows this).
pump and minimize clogging in sprinkler emitters and tubes.
A solar pump combined with affordable drip irrigation kits
can be used with a wide variety of high-value crops to 5. CONCLUSION
increase water efficiency, minimize fertilizer loss, and irrigate
hilly terrains. Photovoltaic systems are especially designed to supply
water and irrigation in areas where there is no mains electric
supply. Their main advantages over hand pumps or internal
4. ASPECTS combustion engine pumps are their practically zero
maintenance their long useful life that they do not
In general, the investment required for a PV pumping contaminate and finally that they are straight forward to
system is Rs. 250-300/Wp (where Rs is the Indian rupee and install, it is estimated that India’s potential for solar PV pump
Wp is watts peak_. For example, the cost of a 900 Wp unit sets, that is at least 255 billion litres of diesel savings.
would be Rs. 225,000-270,000, but with subsidies, this will
be reduced to Rs.50,000. To make the best use of solar
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