Title: Performances of photovoltaic water pumping systems: a case study

Authors: M. Benghanem

Addresses: Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, Taibah University, P.O. Box 344 Madinah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: This paper presents a mathematical motor-pump model for photovoltaic (PV) applications which allow us to contribute in the studies of PV pumping sizing. The modelled motor-pump characteristic is flow rate-power (Q, P). The model is established for centrifugal pump (CP) coupled to DC motor. The non-linear relation between flow rate and solar power has been obtained experimentally in a first step and then used for performance prediction. The model proposed enabled us to simulate the electric and hydraulic performances of CP pumps versus the total water heads for different PV array configuration. The experimental data are obtained with our pumping test facility. The performances are calculated using the measured meteorological data of different sites located in Saudi Arabia. The size of the PV array is varied to achieve the optimum performance of the proposed system.

Keywords: photovoltaic water pumping; motor-pump models; simulation; flow rate; photovoltaics; mathematical modelling; solar power; solar energy; pump sizing; electric performance; hydraulic performance; Saudi Arabia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRET.2009.027988

International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology, 2009 Vol.1 No.2, pp.155 - 172

Published online: 26 Aug 2009 *

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