Design and performance analysis of water pumping using solar PV

Bangladesh is a country where energy crisis seems to be the major problem in spite of being blessed with rich solar irradiation (~4.5KWh/m²-day). The country achieved limited success to harness solar energy to provide electricity for remote people in rural areas. Solar photovoltaic pumping is another means to mitigate energy crisis for irrigation in Bangladesh. This paper deals with the design and performance analysis of a DC photovoltaic water pumping system. A DC solar water pump is built and experimented to observe the results with a direct connection from solar array. Various methodologies to increase the efficiency of the system have been discussed to implement in the system. Finally DC-DC buck converter is designed and constructed to provide current boosting to the DC pump for having a better performance from the system. Battery and inverter is avoided in the projected system which allows a lower cost and zero maintenance. All components in the system are procured from locally available markets from Bangladesh which eventually decreases the overall cost. The designed DC water pumping system has a great prospect to solve out the energy crisis in the irrigation season as well as it can be used to cultivate lands throughout the year.