Assessment of Water Pumping System Powered By Solar Pump in Dry Areas
Amadou Yacouba Moussa1, Patrick Kuloba2, Robert Kiplimo3
1A .Y Moussa *, Pan African University, Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation, Nairobi, Kenya.
2Eng Dr. P Kuloba, Thermodynamic & Fluid Engineering, production Engineering Mechanical Engineering Division, KIRDI- Nairobi, Kenya
3Dr. Robert Kiplimo, Department of Marine Engineering and Maritime Operations, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology, Nairobi, Kenya.
Manuscript received on November 20, 2019. | Revised Manuscript received on November 26, 2019. | Manuscript published on 30 November, 2019. | PP: 2859-2866 | Volume-8 Issue-4, November 2019. | Retrieval Number: D6950118419/2019©BEIESP | DOI: 10.35940/ijrte.D6950.118419
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: The rapid increase of desertification’s degradation is one of the worst environmental and economic threats for dry areas. Climate changes, very year impacts thousands of areas across the globe. The high cost of electricity and diesel-based fuel affects photovoltaic water pumping requirements for irrigation in many parts of the world. Solar irradiance in every dry place is extremely high due the drought increase. Thus, using solar energy for water pumping is a promising alternative sources of energy. Undertaking irrigation for a particular place and crop requires not only skills in the irrigation planning but also in the power requirement of the entire system. A reliable and accurate estimation of ET rate and irrigation water requirement (IWR) are soundly important in irrigation field. This sought to accurately estimate the irrigation power requirement by using PVsyst software on nine different pumps technologies combinations with different type of converters at 100m, 150m, 180m, and 200m of Total dynamic Head (TDH). The study has been conducted in four sections, the first section dealt with the assessment of the collected data, the second section with the simulations, the third one with the irrigation water requirement and finally irrigation water requirement. The results found in study show that IPR of a crop is majorly depend on the TDH. Among the nine combinations, results show that the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) technology is the best in terms of power requirement of selected the crop. Furthermore, the maximum and minimum values of the irrigation water requirement for millet crop was found to be 12.9 mm/day and 4.9mm/day respectively.
Keywords: Photovoltaic Water Pumping System, Dry Areas, Nine Combinations, Pvsyst Software, Irrigation Power Requirement (IPR).
Scope of the Article: Requirements Engineering.