A comprehensive sizing methodology for stand-alone battery-less photovoltaic water pumping system under the Egyptian climate

Abstract

This work introduces comprehensive sizing methodology to optimize a stand-alone battery-less PV water pumping system (PVWPS). The essential target for the battery-less PVWPS is storing water instead of electrical energy. The drawback of employing battery storage is requiring a complex control system. Accordingly it can considerably raise the cost and maintenance burdens of system. PV panel’s orientation has been investigated for achieving maximum incident radiation collected by PV panels at summer session, when large water quantity is demanded for irrigation purposes. The proposed technique is designed and is applied to estimate the optimal sizing of PVWPS for installing at Minya (Egypt). The obtained results demonstrated that, the PV panels should be horizontally oriented to achieve maximum collected energy during the season of peak water demand. Hence, the PV system offers much more water with a smaller PV cells area, i.e. lower cost of irrigation during summer season. This can be considered cost effective solution for agricultural purposes.

Keywords

• photovoltaic systems
• stand alone
• water pumping system
• energy efficiency