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Design and performance evaluation of a solar water pumping system: A case

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Conference Paper · December 2016

DOI: 10.1109/MEPCON.2016.7837005

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 Design and Performance Evaluation of a Solar Water
Pumping System: A Case Study
Mustafa Elrefai Ragi A. Hamdy Amr ElZawawi Mostafa S. Hamad
Alexandria University, Electrical Department, Arab Academy for Science and Technology
Alexandria, Egypt Alexandria Egypt
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract—This paper is concerned to design of direct coupled The PV arrays are connected directly to the controller that
solar water pumping system without using batteries. Technical, works on tracking the maximum power point from PV
economic and environmental parameters are considered in the modules, and converts the DC energy from PV to adequate
design procedures. Performance evaluation of solar water energy, to provide smooth operation of the connected
pumping system is studied using three expressions; yield factor electrical motors. Three types of motors are commonly used;
(YF), wire to water energy efficiency (WWEE) and system DC brushed motor, DC brushless motor and AC motor. The
performance index (SPI). A full monitoring system is presented AC motor represents a reliable, low cost and maintenance
to evaluate the operation of the system. The proposed monitoring work requirement. This motor shaft is directly coupled to the
system measures a real time data of system parameters. A case
pump [3].
study of 45 kWp solar water pumping system in El Wahat, Egypt
is studied. The recorded data using the monitoring system shows
The positive displacement (PD) and centrifugal pump are
that the average daily water volume was 788 m3 over one year. commonly used in solar water pumping systems [4]. The
The maximum output water volume was 887 m3 in summer with piston pumps require less power than centrifugal pumps and
yield factor 5 (kWh/kWp/day). have a capability to work at low flow with a constant pulsating
flow.
Index Terms--AC pump, centrifugal pump, monitoring system, The centrifugal pumps provide good performance for
performance evaluation, Solar photovoltic, Solar water medium and high capacity fluid with low or medium pressure.
pumping. They can work with smooth variable flow without the
capability to work at low flow. The common use of the
I. INTRODUCTION centrifugal pumps is due to their simplicity, low cost and less
Solar water pumping system is considered the promising maintenance requirements than other types [5]. Those features
solution to solve those challenged issues. It presents a clean make centrifugal pumps more adequate to be used.
source of supplying water for irrigation with low maintenance The monitoring system measures the real time parameters
required and with a reliable system that matches the generated including the weather conditions, DC output power (W), from
energy with water needs for irrigation. It also synchronizes the PV plant, the output AC power (W) from the inverter, the
with water irrigation needs of the agriculture crops where the output flow rate (m3/ hr) from the pump and water pressure in
increasing requirement of water in summer matches the the pipes (bar). This real time data are recorded and
increasing generated energy of solar system in summer. transmitted to be able to monitor the PV station remotely.
Using solar water pumping in the remote area is an Sizing the solar water pumping system is a challenge due
environmental friendly, it has lo running cost, long life time to the large variables that affect the system sizing. The
when compared to diesel generator [1]. technical, economic and environmental parameters should be
This paper represents a direct coupled solar water pumping considered to produce an efficient, reliable operation and cost
system without batteries. The presence of batteries in the solar efficient solar water pumping system [6].
water pumping system have many disadvantages [2] like Accurate Identification of the daily required water (m3)
decreasing the total life time of the system -due to short life and the total dynamic head (m) of irrigation system will lead
time of the battery in comparison with the system to proper sizing of the PV system. In [7] authors studied the
components-, increasing the system cost, decreasing the feasibility of using solar energy for irrigating different crops.
overall system efficiency and increasing the maintenance cost They also discussed the water requirements for each crop.
of the system -due to the high maintenance requirements for This paper is organized as follows, in section II design of
the batteries-. Those reasons make water storage in tanks a solar water pumping system is illustrated, section III the
better option than storing electric energy in the batteries. performance of the proposed solar water pumping system is
Figure 1 represents the proposed system components. The evaluated, section IV describes a case study of 45 kWp solar
complete solar water pumping system consists of PV modules, water pumping system in El Wahat, Egypt, In sections V, VI
combiner box, inverters, sensors, protection system, cables, and VII comes the Conclusion, Acknowledgments and
water pumps and monitoring system. References respectively.

978-1-4673-9063-7/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

 Figure 2: Total dynamic head (TDH)

Figure 1: Proposed a full solar water pumping system with monitoring The total losses head H is the summation of the friction
system head H and the fitting losses head H (m) expressed as:
H =H +H (3)
II. DESIGN OF SOLAR WATER PUMPING SYSTEM
Sizing of the solar water pumping system starts by The total dynamic head TDH could be expressed as:
accurately identifying the pumping system and the required TDH = H + H + H + H (4)
water volume at different seasons, to achieve the required
daily water discharge in m3 and avoid oversizing of the The required hydraulic power P (W) could be expressed
system. In this section technical, economic and weather as:
considerations are presented of an accurate solar water P = ρ ∗ g ∗ TDH ∗ Q/3600 (5)
pumping system.
where ρ is the water density (kg/m3).
The technical consideration includes pump selection, PV
model and pump model. The required pump capacity is determined by dividing the
hydraulic power over the selected pump efficiency given as:
a) Technical considerations: (6)
=
1) Pump selection:
Total dynamic head TDH (m) and flow rate Q (m3/hr) 2) Sizing of PV:
should be specified accurately to select the suitable pump.
Figure 2 shows the TDH components for deep water. The The system power flow starts with the solar irradiance
TDH consists of static head H (m), drawdown head H (m), falling on the PV arrays. The falling solar irradiance (W/m2)
total loss head H (m) and pressure head H (m). and the PV array surface temperature (°C) effect the output
The drawdown head H represents the down of water level DC power from the PV arrays P (W). The solar water
after pumping. The friction head H (m) represents the loss of pumping controller works to convert the P (W) power form
pressure in pipe due to fraction. The friction head could be to three phase AC power P (W). The controller has
calculated approximately from the Darcy formula as [8]: maximum power point tracking technique to extract the
8 (1) maximum power from the PV arrays. The motor converters
= 4 ∗ the AC power to mechanical power through the motor
shaft P (W). Pumps work on transferring the mechanical
energy to extract the water from the well.
where K is an empirical factor describing the friction loss In order to accurately design the solar water pumping
which depends on Reynolds number, l is the pipes length (m), system, the output water volume should be calculated to show
D is the pipe diameter (m), g is the acceleration gravity (m/s2) how it matches the water requirements. The following section
and Q is the flow rate (m3/s). discusses the calculation of the output water volume starting
Additional head [8] should be considered the head loss, Calculation of GTI and PV surface temperature:
due to pipes fitting and presence of valves. It can be calculated
approximately as: The global horizontal irradiance (G ) W/m data are
8 (2) commonly available worldwide either using historical data
= ∗
such as NASA Surface Meteorology and Solar Energy data
where K is the fitting loss factor. set which covers the data period from 1983-2005 [9] or using
estimation models [10]. In [11] the authors present a Skoplaki model [13] is used to estimate the surface
mathematical model to estimate the hourly global horizontal temperature for the air temperature (T ) ℃ data as:
irradiance in Egypt. 0.32 (14)
T = T + ∗G
Based on the geographical site, the PV arrays are installed 8.91 + 2 ∗ v
at inclination angle. The hourly average global irradiance on where v >0 is the wind velocity (m/s).
the titled solar PV array could be calculated from the hourly
average global irradiance data [12]. 3) PV power
The global tilted irradiance (G ) W/m could be Using the two input parameters GTI and the module
estimated by the two components of global horizontal surface temperature, the maximum voltage [14] delivered
irradiance; beam (G ) and the diffuse irradiance (G ) on the from PV modules could be calculated as:
horizontal surface. A clearness index K is widely used to
V (T ) = V , + μ (T −T ) (15)
evaluate the hourly average diffuse radiation on the horizontal
surface from the hourly global irradiance.
The maximum current delivered from PV modules could
For k ≤ 0.22 be calculated by:
G (7)
= 1 − 0.009 k G (16)
G I (G , T ) = [I , + μ (T − T )]
G
For 0.22 < k ≤ 0.8
G (8) The maximum power delivered is the multiply of the
= 0.9511 − 0.1604 k + 4.388k maximum voltage and current of the PV modules as:
G
− 16.638 k + 12.336 k
P =V ∗I (17)
For k > 0.8
G (9) The efficiency of the PV module could be calculated by:
= 0.165
G P (18)
ƞ =
According to Hay model which is used to estimate the G ∗ Area
global irradiance on the titled surface of PV arrays, the 4) Controllers
geometric factor (gf) gives the relation between the beam
irradiation on the tilted surface and the radiation on the The controller converts the DC power form from the PV
arrays to the AC power form to drive the three phase AC
horizontal surface which could be calculated by the ratio of
motor. It works on extracting the maximum power from the
the cosine of incidence angle to the cosine of zenith angle as PV arrays using applied maximum power point tracking
cos (Ɵ) (10)
gf = (MPPT) techniques. It also works on driving the motor
cos (Ɵ ) smoothly.
Anisotropic index (A ) represents the environmental The AC voltage (V) could be calculated by:
transmittance effect of the beam irradiance. V (19)
G V = ma ∗
(11) √2
A =
G The output AC power P (W) of the controller could be
where G = 1367 W/m calculated by:
The factor (bf) represents the effect of the horizontal P = √3 ∗ I ∗ V (20)
brightening. The efficiency of the controller could be calculated by:
(12) P (21)
G ƞ =
bf = P
G
5) AC motor
The titled global irradiance could be calculated by:
The AC induction motor is widely used to drive water
G = [(G + G ∗ A ) ∗ gf] + G ∗ (1 − A ) ∗ (13) pumps due to its robustness, reliability, low prices and low
( ) maintenance requirements [15].
∗ 1 + bf ∗ sin (β/2) + G ∗ ρ ∗ The load torque of the centrifugal pump T (N.m) is given
( )
by:
where β is the titled angle and ρ is the ground reflectance. T= k ∗w (22)
The global solar irradiance on tilted surface is used to estimate The delivered power to motor shaft could be calculated by:
the PV generation of the PV arrays and to determine the P = T ∗ w (23)
optimum tilted angle.
The efficiency of the motor could be calculated by:
The surface temperature of the PV arrays (T ) ℃ has a P (24)
great effect on the power production. Due to the non- ƞ =
availability of the data of surface temperature of PV arrays, P
6) Pump
 The centrifugal pumps are widely used due to their where F is the future amount, I is the interest rate and N is
simplicity, low cost and low maintenance requirements. the life time of the system.
Pfleider-Peterman model [16] expresses the relation The cost of energy could be calculated by dividing the LCC
between the head and flow of the centrifugal pump as: over the total generated energy during the period and could be
H=a ∗w +a ∗w∗Q+a ∗Q (25) expressed as:
where a , a and a are constants that depend on the pump LCC (32)
dimensions. CoE =
∑ E
The transferred power to the motor shaft to extract the
water from the well could be calculated by:
P = ρ ∗ g ∗ TDH ∗ Q (26) Payback period measures the required time to recover the
cost of an investment which could be calculated as:
The efficiency of the water pump could be calculated by:
P (27) Captical cost (33)
ƞ = PBP =
P E ∗ CoE ∗ R
The overall solar water pumping system efficiency could
be calculated by:
ƞ =ƞ ∗ƞ ∗ƞ ∗ƞ (28)
Increasing the sizing of the PV system will increase the
daily output water and the working hours, but it will increase
the capital cost as well. The decision of the optimum sizing of
the PV depends on two criterions: achieving the required
water of the system based on the availability of the solar
energy project location and achieving the lowest price per m3
of water over the operating period of the station [17].
Figure 3 shows the proposed sizing flowchart of the PV
solar water pumping system. It depends on the technical,
financial and environmental data to size solar water pumping
system with the lowest price of m water.
b) Economic considerations:
Energy cost and payback period [18] are used to estimate
the solar water pumping system economics.
Life cycle cost LCC [19] is commonly used to evaluate the
PV solar systems and help in the decision making of selecting
the optimal configuration. The life cycle cost LCC includes
the costs of the system during its life time period; it includes
capital cost IC, the maintenance cost and the cost of the system Figure 3: Proposed sizing of solar water pumping
components replacement.
III. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM
(29)
LCC = IC + MC ∗ R + RC ∗ R The output water volume (m3) from the solar water
pumping system describes the performance of the systems.
The environmental conditions of system location, especially
The capital cost includes the system components cost,
solar irradiance and ambient temperature have high effect on
design, installation and civil works costs. It can be expressed
the output water flow rate from the water pumping system.
by:
References [20] and [21] study the factors affecting on the
IC = C +C +C +C + ICI (30) performance of solar water pumping systems: the pumping
head (m), the PV size (kWp), the solar irradiance(W/m2), the
where ICI is the cost of installation and civil works. required water (m3), the pump efficiency (%), the amount of
As the life time of the PV solar system considers the life unused solar energy(kWh) and the variation of pump pressure
time of the PV modules. Controller and pump set have shorter as result of the variation of the irradiance and the required
life time than PV modules which need to be replaced during pressure compensation, the PV modules effciency,
the life time of the project. A replacement cost RC should be orientation, degardation and the mounting structure have a
considered to the total life cycle costs. great impact on the performance of the system.
R is the present value of each factor and could be The parameters which affect the perfomance of the solar
expressed by: water pumping system are: weather conditions of the location
F (31) including (irradiance (W/m2) and ambient temperature (°C)),
R = water flow rate (m3/hr), total dynamic head (m), daily required
(1 + I)
water (m3) and maximum drawn flow rate (m3/hr) depending
on well characteristics.
 By considering the infulance of those parameters on 2 Type of PV module Poly crystalline
system design, accurate and minimum costs of cubic meter of 3 Type of motor Three phase induction motor
water are obtained [22].
Three expressions are applied to measure the perfomance 4 Submersible water pump 30 kW, 40 hp
of the solar water pumping system mainly yield factor (YF), 5 Static water head 36 m
wire to water energy efficiency (WWEE) and system
performance index (SPI) [18] and [23].
a) Yield factor (kWh/kWp/day): Real time data recorded of 45 kWp solar water pumping
This expression presents the ratio between the daily, system using the monitoring system are discussed as the
monthly or yealy AC output energy to the installed PV array. following:

E (kWh/day) (34) Table 1: Seasonal daily recorded data of the station

YF =
PV Wp (kWp) GTI Flow AC
Averg. YF
Surf (kWh/ SPI (m3/
Season (Wh/ rate energy
Temp kWp/ Wp /day)
m2) (m3) (kWh)
b) Wire to water energy efficiency : (◦C) day)
Summer 6,593 887 214 40.3 5 0.021
This expression presents the overall system efficiency Fall 6,102 763 177 27.2 4.1 0.018
during the day given by: Winter 6,496 742 204 22.9 4.7 0.017
Spring 6,411 845 190 35.3 4.4 0.02
WWEE (35)
Hydraulic energy of the water delivered (Wh/day)
= The average daily flow rate of the station during the four
PV energy supplied (Wh/day) seasons was about 788 m3/day. The measurement of DC
where Hydraulic energy (HE) = Hydraulic power * hr/ day. energy was not instaled during this period so WWEE
expression could not be presented. The yield factor reaches
its maximum 5 kWh/ kwp/day in summer and also the daily
c) System performance index (m3/Wp/day) water production reached its maximum which is 887 m3/ day
This term presents the total daily sum of the water to meet the high demand of water in summer.
delivered per the PV station capacity (Wp) of the PV station Figure 4 shows the perfomance of the station during a
capacity. sunny day. The station started to operate when the GTI
reached a value above 165 W/m2 and closed when the GTI
Water delivery (m /day) (36) decreased below the same value. The output flowrate is nearly
SPI =
PV station capacity (Wp) constant during the day.
The water pressure was approximaty constant about 1 bar.
Increasing the required system pressure will cause reducation
IV. CASE STUDY in the daily water production of the system. The total water
A 45 kWp solar water pumping system in El Wahat, Egypt production volume was 844.79 m3 in this sunny day.
is considered. This system consists of a complete solar water Figure 5 shows the efficiency of the Solar PV station at
Sunny day. The efficiency of the station reaches its maximum
pumping system with a full weather station to monitor and
15.5 % during morning sunrise hours. At the middle of the day
evaluate the solar water pumping station. the efficincy of the station decreases due to the influence of
The system consists of 45 kWp fixed mounting PV panels increasing the module temperature over 50 °C. The efficiency
with tilted angle of 26 degrees. The output is connected to the increases again at the sunset hours when the temperature
solar water pumping controller that supplys a 30 kW Grundfos decreases.
submersible pump. The installed full monitoring system Figure 6 shows the performance of the station during a
consists of the following sensors: pyronometer to -measure cloudy day. It shows a high variation of the output water flow
the global titled irradiance GTI (W/m2)-, temperature sensor rate simultaneously with the variation of the input Solar
irradiance. The total water production volume was 597 m3 in
(°C), surface temperature sensor (°C)-to directly measure the
this cloudy day.
temperature of the surface of the PV module-, energy meter to Figure 7 shows the efficiency of the Solar station at the
-measure AC output energy from the controller-, cloudy day. The maximum efficiency of the Solar station
electromagnetic flow meter (m3/hr) to -measure the output during the day was 15.53 %. It should be noted that the
flow rate simultansouly- and water pressure sensor (bar) to - temperature was low below 36 ° C so the temperature did not
measure the pressure head of the water in the outlet pipe crucially affect the efficiency during mid day as it did in the
typically- as shown in Figure 1. sunny day.

Table 1: Summary of PV system parameters V. CONCLUSION

No. Parameter Value
The sizing of the solar water pumping system is
1 PV station capacity 45 kWp presesented by considering the technical, enviromental,
economical and long term system operation. The evaluation
and performance of solar water pumping system is discussed.
WWEE, SPI and YF expressions are used to evaluate the solar
water pumping system. A case study of 45 kWp fixed
mounting solar water pumping in El Wahat, Egypt. This
system presents a complete solar system with full monitoring
system. The data was recorded and analyzed for different
seasons. It was clearly obsevered that the maximum daily
output water volume was in summer, which matches the high
water requirements during this seasons.

Figure 6: Performance of Solar water pumping station in cloudy day

Figure 4: Performance of Solar water pumping station in sunny day

Figure 7: Solar PV station efficiency in cloudy day

VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge the support of ERCC company-
a consultancy firm based in Cairo for their support to fulfill
this work.
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