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Solar Energy 77 (2004) 8193

www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

New approaches on the optimization of directly


coupled PV pumping systems
Z. Abidin Firatoglu, Bulent Yesilata

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Harran University, Sanliurfa 63100, Turkey


Received 7 July 2003; received in revised form 4 November 2003; accepted 19 February 2004
Available online 17 March 2004
Communicated by: Associate Editor A. Morales-Acevedo

Abstract
We here use a multi-step optimization procedure to improve utilization of a direct-coupled photovoltaic water
pumping systems. The algorithm developed here is simple, fast, and has no numerical problems. The solution can be
obtained by using available long-term meteorological data for the design-site and manufacturer data for the system
components. The main steps in the algorithm are outlined below:
(i) The long-term (16 years, between 1985 and 2001) meteorological database on hourly basis for the design site
(Sanliurfa, Turkey), provided in electronic format by the National Meteorology Center, is constructed.
(ii) The optimal PV array slope is determined by the linear search method.
(iii) The optimal solar radiation interval is determined by the utilizability method.
(iv) The optimum number of PV panels and their optimal electrical conguration in the array are determined by a
nonlinear search method based on a statistical parameter.
The results show that better system performance with less PV array area can be obtained by accurate selection of the
array conguration.
 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: PV pump; Directly coupled; Multi-step optimization

1. Introduction
Photovoltaic (PV) powered water pumping systems
have been one of the most popular solar energy applications in the last two decades. The use of such a system
is rst appropriate since there is a natural relation-ship
between the availability of solar energy and the water
requirement. That is; the water requirement increases
with increasing solar radiation level. PV systems have

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90-414-344-00201094; fax:
+90-414-344-0031.
E-mail addresses: ratoglu@harran.edu.tr (Z.A. Firatoglu),
byesilata@yahoo.com, byesilata@harran.edu.tr (B. Yesilata).

some distinct advantages in electrical power production


such as, being environmentally friendly, requiring no
fuel cost, operating with no noise and wear due to absence of moving parts, and also requiring little maintenance. Using PV array to drive water pumping units for
irrigation and drinking water in remote areas, where
other sources of power not available, are found to be the
most feasible and economically viable design conguration (Posorski, 1996). The major barriers of using PV
systems, in general, are the high installation costs and
low energy conversion eciency of PV cells available in
the market. Signicant cost penalties therefore result
from oversizing a PV system since the cost is mostly
dependent on the PV array area (Landridge et al., 1996).
The main object in designing a PV pumping system

0038-092X/$ - see front matter  2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.solener.2004.02.006

82

Z.A. Firatoglu, B. Yesilata / Solar Energy 77 (2004) 8193

Nomenclature
A
b1
b2
E
H
h
Hb
Hd
Ho
hs
Hsc
Ht
I
I0
Ia
IEOP
IL
IMPP

KM
Kp
KT
Kv
L
m
Mm
Mp
n

thermal voltage (V)


height of the blade at the entrance to the
impeller (m)
height of the blade at the exit of the impeller
(m)
motor voltage constant (V)
total incident radiation on a horizontal
surface (W/m2 )
hour angle (deg)
beam radiation on a horizontal surface (W/
m2 )
diuse sky radiation on a horizontal surface
(W/m2 )
extra-terrestrial radiation (W/m2 )
sunset hour angle on a horizontal surface
(deg)
solar constant (W/m2 )
total incident radiation on a tilted surface
(W/m2 )
current (A)
dark current (A)
motor armature current (A)
output current at equilibrium operating
point of the PV panel conguration (A)
light current (A)
output current at the maximum power
operating point of the PV panel conguration (A)
motor torque constant (V s)
pump constant (J s)
clearness index
motor e.m.f. constant (V/rpm)
latitude
interval number
motor electromagnetic torque (N m)
pump torque (N m)
day number

(PVPS) is that the required pumping power should be


generated by a minimum number of PV panels in order
to improve the cost eectiveness (Landridge et al., 1996;
Firatoglu and Yesilata, 2001).
The PVPS consists of at least three basic components: a PV array, a DC motor, and a pump, as shown
schematically in Fig. 1. The PV array generates sucient
electrical power from the sun-light to operate the DC
motor, which converts the electrical energy into the
mechanical energy and drives the pump. The mechanical
energy is then converted into the hydraulic energy by the
pump to draw water from the well. This type of
arrangement is known as directly coupled photovoltaic

Pm
PPV
Q
R1
R2
Ra
Rb
Rd
Rs
Rsh
Ta
V
Va
Vm
VMPP

VEOP
d
a
x
q
/
b1
b2
g
gm
gp
r

motor shaft power (W)


output power of the PV panel conguration
(W)
volumetric ow rate (m3 /s)
radius of the water entrance at the impeller
blade (m)
radius of the water exit at the impeller blade
(m)
motor armature resistance
beam radiation tilt factor
diuse radiation tilt factor
series resistance of the PV panel (X)
shunt resistance of the PV panel (X)
ambient temperature (C)
voltage (V)
motor armature voltage (V)
operating voltage of motor (V)
output voltage at the maximum power
operating point of the PV panel conguration (V)
output voltage at equilibrium operating
point of the PV panel conguration (V)
solar declination (deg)
panel tilt angle (deg)
motor shaft speed (rpm)
density (kg/m3 )
utilizability factor
blade inclination angle at the impeller entrance (deg)
blade inclination angle at the impeller exit
(deg)
PV-panel eciency
motor eciency
pump eciency
dened statistical parameter for selecting of
the optimum PV panel conguration

pumping system (DC-PVPS) since PV array is directly


connected to the DC motor-pump. There are two other
arrangements of the system currently in common use:
(i) battery-buered photovoltaic pumping system (BBPVPS) where a battery is connected across the PV
array and the DC motor, to provide a constant voltage output, even with the absence of the sun,
(ii) photovoltaic pumping system with a maximum
power point tracker (MPPT) where a DC-DC converter is used to continually match the peak-power
point characteristics of a PV array to the input characteristics of a DC motor.

Z.A. Firatoglu, B. Yesilata / Solar Energy 77 (2004) 8193

83

y
rg
ne
re
la
So

Hydraulic
energy
Electrical
energy

Mechanical
energy
DC Motor

Pump

PV array
Fig. 1. The schematic of a DC-PVPS.

Each of these three congurations has its own


advantages (see Short and Oldach (2003) for excellent
discussion of the subject). However, the main disadvantage of two latter congurations is that they require
at least one additional electronic component; hence, they
are more expensive, more complicated, and less reliable.
We here consider a DC-PVPS and present a multistep optimization method for its ecient utilization. The
analysis of a DC-PVPS is extremely complex since volumetric rate of pumped water is dependent on many
factors, which can be described by highly nonlinear
equations. These factors can be classied as meteorological parameters (radiation intensity and ambient
temperature) of the site, PV array specications (IV
output, area, conversion eciency, and slope), and DC
motor-pump-hydraulic system characteristics (IV output of the motor-pump assembly, static and dynamic
head of pipeline). The operating point of a DC-PVPS
depends on the current-voltage (IV ) characteristics of
both the motor-pump assembly and the PV array. IV
characteristics of the PV array vary nonlinearly with
solar radiation, ambient temperature, and the current
drawn by the DC motor. For a given solar radiation and
ambient temperature, there is a unique point on IV
curve of PV array at which the electrical power output is
maximum. This point is known as maximum power
point (MPP), and its curve at various solar radiations
and ambient temperatures is aimed to match with
operating curve of DC-PVPS (Appelbaum, 1981; Hsiao,
1984; Suehrcke et al., 1997; Firatoglu and Yesilata,
2003a). For most DC motors and pumps, however,
operating point of the system at most radiation levels is
far from the MPP of the PV array, and only few options
are available to the system designer to achieve this
optimum matching. One of the options is to use a
MPPT, as mentioned above. Using an array tracking
system or a specially designed DC motor are the other
options to maintain optimum matching at most radiation levels. One of the most feasible method of achieving
this however is to determine the best series-parallel
conguration of PV panels for the array. Application of
the method requires the knowledge of long-term meteorological data for the design site and the technical

specications of the PV-panel, the DC-motor, and the


pump (Firatoglu and Yesilata, 2003b,c). Due to nonlinear nature of the equations, the system can not be
described with a single model, and a complex numerical
simulation is usually necessary. The simulation sometimes is accompanied with graphical solutions and risky
approximations. There is also signicant computational
cost (Firatoglu and Yesilata, 2003c).
We here use a multi-step optimization procedure to
improve utilization of the DC-PVPS at selected design
parameters. The algorithm developed here is simple,
fast, and has no numerical problems. The solution can
be obtained by using available meteorological data for
the site and manufacturer data for the system components. The main steps in the algorithm are outlined below and described in detail in the next section:
(i) The long-term (16 years, between 1985 and 2001)
meteorological database on hourly basis for the design site (Sanliurfa, Turkey), provided in electronic
format by National Meteorology Center, is constructed.
(ii) The optimal PV array slope is determined by the
linear search method.
(iii) The optimal solar radiation interval is determined
by the utilizability method.
(iv) The optimum number of PV panels and their optimal electrical conguration in the array are determined by a nonlinear search method based on a
statistical parameter.

2. The optimal PV array slope


2.1. Long-term weather data for the design site
The long-term weather data is extremely important
for accurate design and optimization of PVPS since
power output from the PV array strongly depends on
solar radiation (H ) and cell/ambient temperature (Ta ).
We here averaged 16 years weather data measured
hour-by-hour between years of 19852001 for the design
site. The hourly mean values of the measured weather

84

Z.A. Firatoglu, B. Yesilata / Solar Energy 77 (2004) 8193

data (total solar radiation on horizontal plane and


ambient temperature) are shown in Fig. 2(a) and (b). It
is apparent that the solar radiation data given in Fig.

2(a) contains both direct and diuse components,


H Hb Hd . We need rst to decompose H to its direct
(Hb ) and diuse (Hd ) components in order to determine
total radiation on a tilted-surface. This can be done by
following a multi-step procedure that is well described in
the literature (Due and Beckman, 1991; Hay, 1979;
Klein, 1977). We start by calculating hourly average
clearness index (KT ) with the following formula,
KT

H ( W/m2 )

1000

H =H0
;
cosd cosL cosh sinL sind

800

where

600




360n
:
H0 Hsc 1 0:033 cos
365

400
200
100

In equations above; d, L, and h are respectively declination, latitude and sun-hour angles. Hsc is the solarconstant, n is the number of the days from Jan. 1st. The
calculated values of KT for the design-site during the
average-year are shown in Fig. 2(c).
We next decompose the diuse component of the
monthly average daily solar radiation according to the
following empirical equation (Klein, 1977),

150
8

200

hou 12
r

250

d ay

300

16

(a)

20

350

Hd
1  1:112K T ;
H

50
40
30
0

T( C)

50

20
10
0

50
100
4
8
12

ho
ur

200
16

(b)

250
20

150
y
da

where bar over the symbols indicates monthly average


daily radiation/clearness index. Since H and K T are
known, we are able to determine H d by Eq. (3). The
hourly average diuse radiation can then be calculated
as,
Hd  p 
cosh  coshs

;
4
24 sinhs  2p=360 coshs
Hd

300
24

350

where hs is sunset hour angle. The other component,


hourly average direct radiation, is simply the dierence
between hourly values of total and diuse radiations,
Hb H  Hd . After decomposition process of total
radiation on horizontal surface, calculations for tiltedsurfaces as described below can easily be performed.

2.2. Optimal monthly slope

0.8

KT

0.6
0.4
0.2

50
100

150
200

ho u12
r

(c)

250

d ay

300

16
20

350

Fig. 2. The long-term (16 years) averaged weather data for the
design site (Sanliurfa, Turkey): (a) the measured solar radiation
on the horizontal plane, (b) the measured ambient temperature,
and (c) the calculated clearness index.

In order to achieve full utilization of a DC-PVPS an


automatic array-tracking unit should be used. The
addition of such a unit results in signicantly higher
costs, more complex and less reliable system structure.
We therefore here propose to use a simple manual
tracking system in a way that the slope of the array (a)
can be adjusted mechanically only once a month. This
type of system can be constructed easily with insignicant cost. This approach has not been considered in
previous studies; instead, PV array has been installed as
south-faced with a yearly constant optimal slope that is
equivalent to the sites latitude angle. We examined

Z.A. Firatoglu, B. Yesilata / Solar Energy 77 (2004) 8193

In order to determine monthly optimum slope of the


PV array, we used the linear search method: Ht values
were calculated by scanning various values of a, between
amin 0 and amax 90 with increments of 1. The
slope at which the largest value of Ht is obtained in the
scanned range of a is dened as monthly optimum slope
(am ) for the corresponding month. The calculations were
made for every month of the year and results are given
in Table 1.
In Fig. 3, for the case 1 (a ah ), the hourly slope of
PV array is continuously changed by an automatic
tracking system whereas in the case 2 (a am ), the slope
is manually adjusted only once for each month to the
optimal monthly inclination angle. The slight dierence
between these two cases remarkably suggests that
monthly optimal slope approach is quiet feasible. There
are several factors that give maximum positive impact
on monthly tracking system. First, the methodology is
based on a precise linear searching by using site-specic
long-term measured data, rather than taking derivative
of Eq. (5) and nding its extremum point. The latter
approach could be more useful when measured longterm data is not available. Second, the target is welldetermined: maximizing monthly average daily incident
total radiation, whereas a tracking system is designed to
maximize only direct component of radiation. Finally, in
calculations, we use one-axis tracking mode (rather than
two-axis) and hourly mean radiation data (rather than
the instantaneous ones) for comparison since these
choices are good enough for PV systems. Less similar
results between the automatic and the monthly manualtracking modes would be obtained, if we had used the
two-axis tracking mode and instantaneous solar radiation data that give maximum positive impact on automatic tracking system. We also note that signicant
energy loss, especially in summer season, occur in yearly
use of the system when PV array is installed with the
latitude angle of the site ay L 37 here), which is
considered as yearly optimal slope in most solar energy
applications (Due and Beckman, 1991; Dincer, 1995).

hourly, monthly, and yearly optimum-slope cases in


terms of the daily incident total solar radiation per panel
surface and the results are shown in Fig. 3. The PV array
is oriented as south-faced in all three cases. Calculations
were performed over the full-sunny-period of the month.
That is; we considered all days of the month, and
determined daily total radiation by summing up hourly
values between sun-rise and sun-set. The monthly average daily total radiation was then simply obtained by
taking arithmetic mean of daily values, dividing monthly
radiation (sum of daily values) by the number of days.
The calculation of hourly total radiation on a tilted
surface (shown with Ht here) is quiet straightforward
with the knowledge of Hb , Hd , and a (Hay, 1979). The
corresponding equation, with the negligible reective
component, is
Ht Rb Hb Rd Hd ;

where Rb and Rd are direct and diuse radiation tilt


factors. These factors can be determined by
Rb

cosL  a cosd cosh sinL  a sind


cosL cosd cosh sinL sind

1 cosa
:
2

and
Rd

28
26
24

Ht (MJ/m2 day)

22
20
18
16
14

12

10

85

3. Steady-state model for the DC-PVPS

8
6

10

The DC-PVPS consists of a PV array, a DC motor,


and a centrifugal pump as shown in Fig. 1. The mathematical models of the each component and the whole
system under steady-state conditions are presented
below.

12

month

Fig. 3. The daily incident total solar ux for hourly (ah ),


monthly (am ), and yearly (ay ) optimal panel slopes.

Table 1
The optimal values of the monthly PV array slope (in degree) for the design-site
Months
am opt

1
55

2
48

3
34

4
19

5
5

6
0

7
0

8
14

9
31

10
46

11
55

12
57

86

Z.A. Firatoglu, B. Yesilata / Solar Energy 77 (2004) 8193

3.1. The PV array


The PV array is a strongly nonlinear power source,
and its IV characteristics depend on the radiation level
and ambient/cell temperature. The operating point of
the system (PV array coupled with the pump-motor
assembly) changes whenever any of these weather
parameters changes. The relationship between current
(I)-voltage (V ) output is:




V IRs
V IRs
I IL Ht  I0 exp
1 
;
8
A
Rsh
where IL Ht is the light current (A) at the operation
radiation level of Ht ; I0 is the dark current (A); I is the
operation current (A); V is the operation voltage (V ); Rs
is the series resistance (X); Rsh is the shunt resistance (X);
A is the thermal voltage (V ). The eect of Rsh can be
neglected for a single-well constructed area cells. This is
proven to be particularly true for single crystalline silicon cells, Rsh  Rs , (Kou et al., 1998; Akbaba et al.,
1998). The Eq. (8) can then be explicitly written as:




V IRs
1 :
9
I IL Ht  I0 exp
A
The importance of this equation is that the values of the
four unknown parameters (IL , I0 , Rs , and A) at the
standard test conditions (Ht;ref 1000 W/m2 and
Ta;ref 25 C) can easily be determined from the manufacturers technical data sheet. These four parameters
are then corrected accordingly for the solar radiation
and ambient temperature valid at operating weather
condition (see Kou et al. (1998) for the procedure). The
IV characteristics along with conversion eciency (g)
of the selected PV panel at various solar radiances are
determined and shown in Fig. 4. In calculations, the
technical data given in Appendix A for the PV panel is

I (A)

3.5

MPP

0.12

1000 W/m2

0.1
800 W/m2

0.08

600 W/m2

0.06

2.5

I(A)

1.5
400 W/m2

0.04

200 W/m2

0.02

used. In order to determine operating points of the


system, IV relation described below for motor-pump
assembly is also necessary.
3.2. The DC motor (brushless permanent magnet motor)
Several types of DC (i.e. brushed and brushsless
permanent magnet, variable switch reluctance) and AC
motors (synchronous and asynchronous) are available
for PVPS (Short and Oldach, 2003). The choice of the
motor is dependent on numerous factors including size
requirements, eciency, price, reliability and availability. DC motors are attractive since they can directly be
connected to the PV array and provide a simple and an
inexpensive system. DC motors are however not suitable
for high-power (above 7 kW) applications, where an
induction (AC) motor with a DC-AC inverter is a better
choice even though inverter requirement introduce
additional costs and some energy losses. We here consider a DC motor since our system falls into a moderate
power (about 3 kW) rated application.
The conventional DC motor is itself complicate,
expensive, and has all the common disadvantages associated with the sliding brush contacts and the commutator (Mummadi, 2000; Anis and Metwally, 1994). The
use of a brushless-DC motor (BDCM) is found to be
more suitable for PVPS to avoid from these disadvantages (Kou et al., 1998). The BDCM has a rotating
permanent magnet and stationary armature winding
instead of a conventional brush-commutator assembly.
Commutation of electric current in the stationary
armature is done by an electronic circuit in accordance
with the rotor position. Because of the electronic commutation, the brushless permanent magnet DC motor
has a high eciency (see for example Whiteld et al.,
1995), high reliability and minimum maintenance
requirements. Short and Oldach (2003) however have
debated that using the BDCM add no less complexity to
the system than using an MPPT. This caution should
also be considered in use of a BDCM since it hardly
satises with the village level operation and maintenance
(VLOM) criteria described in Short and Thompson
(2003).
The basic equations of the BDCM at steady-state
operating conditions can be expressed as,
Vm E Va Kv x Ia Ra ;

10

Mm Pm =x KM Ia ;

11

gm Pm =PPV Mm x=VI;

12

1
0.5
0

10

15

V (V)

Fig. 4. The IV and gV characteristics of the selected (AP-50)


PV panel at various solar radiances.

where Vm is the applied motor voltage (V ); E is the motor


electromotor force (V ); Va is the armature voltage (V );
Kv is the motor voltage constant; x is the motor shaft-

Z.A. Firatoglu, B. Yesilata / Solar Energy 77 (2004) 8193

speed (rpm); Ia is the motor armature current (A); Ra is


the motor armature resistance (X); Pm is the motor shaft
power (W ); Mm is the motor electromagnetic torque
(N m); KM is the torque constant; and gm is the motor
eciency.
3.3. The pump (the centrifugal type)
Pumping schemes driven by DC motors have been
the object of many studies and it was concluded that
BDCM coupled to a centrifugal pump was the most
suitable combination for PVPS (Anis and Metwally,
1994). Centrifugal pumps are also simple and inexpensive, require low maintenance and are available in wide
range of ow rates and heads. Hence, a centrifugal
pump is considered in this study.
Pumps can be characterized by their total head (DH )
and hydraulic power (Pp ) versus ow rate prole (Q).
The total head loss consists of a static component and a
dynamic component. The dynamic head depends on the
ow rate whereas the static head is dened as the vertical
distance from the water surface to the point of free
discharge. In a PVPS, dynamic head is usually minimized by using larger diameter pipes and main contribution to total head, particularly for small-sized
systems, comes from the static head. In this case, the
total head is assumed to be constant. We here use this
approach and perform calculations for a constant total
head of DHref 10 m (1 bar). The selection of 10 m
total/static head might seem not appropriate for nearly 3
kW rated DC motor described in the previous section.
Although any selected value of head does not aect
accuracy and procedure of the optimisation, it aects the
ow-rates of pumped-water. In practical applications,
one can use a multiplication factor of DHref =H to convert the ow-rates obtained for DHref to the real value of
head, DH .
The main diculty in modeling of a pump is that the
pump characteristics, such as the head versus ow, are
usually specied by the manufacturer for xed speeds
only. However, in the PVPS pump-speed is not constant,
varying with the solar irradiance level. Pump anity or
similarity laws are usually used to obtain the required
parameters at various speeds. The method is complicated and subject to errors when it is not applied
accordingly. The ow curves supplied by the manufacturer has to be carefully digitized and the extension of
the data must be made to the points of equal eciency.
Besides, polynomial approximation is necessary to represent both the pump and pipeline characteristics. Because of these limitations, we here express a relation
between the pump torque (Mp ) and pump speed (x) in
terms of pump dimensions as suggested by (Braunstein
and Kornfeld, 1981),
Mp x2 Kp ;

13

87

where the pump torque constant Kp depends on pump


geometric parameters as


R2 b1 tgb1
:
14
Kp qR21 2pb1 tgb1 R22 1
b2 tgb2
In the last equation; q is water density, R, b, and b are
respectively the radius, height, and inclination angle of
the impeller-blade. The subscripts 1 and 2 represent
impeller-entrance and impeller-exit. The volumetric rate
of pumped water is determined by the following relationship:
Q gp Pm =qgDHref ;

15

where gp is the pump eciency.


3.4. The operating points of the DC-PVPS
The Eq. (9) through (15) can be used to determine
operating and MPP points of the system after deciding
which PV panel, DC motor and pump are used. The
selected components for this study and their technical
data obtained from the manufacturers technical sheets
are given in the Appendix A. By neglecting motor-pump
coupling losses, the following equations are valid for the
system:
Ia I;

Vm V

and

Mp Mm :

16

The pump-speed can be related to the current provided by PV array, by combining Eqs. (11) and (13),
x KM Ia =Kp 1=2 :

17

As a result, we have three nonlinear equations of (9),


(10) and (17) with three unknowns of V , I, and x. For
given solar irradiance (Ht ) and the ambient temperature
(Ta ), these three equations can simultaneously be solved.
We have used Newton-Raphson method to obtain
operating points of the system.

4. Optimal PV array conguration


The most critical part of the design in DC-PVPS is
the PV array conguration, the number of PV modules
connected in series and parallel. The main objective in
searching the best conguration is, for given solar
radiation, to operate the system at points as close to
peak/maximum power points. For an unsuccessful design, even by using the same number of PV modules, the
equilibrium operating point (EOP) may be far away
from MPP of PV array at all radiation levels, resulting in
low or no utilization of the system. The MPP nonlinearly varies with radiation and temperature; it is thus
dicult to maintain optimum matching at all radiation
levels, except for a specially designed DC motor-pump
assembly. For most commercially available DC motors

88

Z.A. Firatoglu, B. Yesilata / Solar Energy 77 (2004) 8193

Fig. 5. The deviation between MPP and EOP curves of the system (reproduced geometric part on the right is only for discussion
purpose).

and pumps, the equilibrium operating points of the


system are far from the peak power points at most
radiation levels, and full utilization can not be achieved.
As an example, we show MPP and EOP curves of our
system in Fig. 5. The EOPC approaches to MPPC for
only certain range of solar radiation. Since the MPPC
has the nonlinear nature and the EOPC is restricted with
the selected motor-pump assembly, the full match between these two curves can not be expected. Instead,
close match at a selected solar radiation interval can be
obtained by changing the PV module numbers and the
conguration, provided that matching IV output to
drive the DC motor is satised. It is obvious that
selection of the solar radiation interval is the site and
season dependent. We propose a new approach explained below to optimize PV array conguration.
4.1. Optimal solar radiation interval
The utilizability is in general the fraction of collected
solar radiation, above a critical radiation level (Ht;crit );
that is, useful energy is produced only for solar radiation
levels larger than Ht;crit . This radiation level is called the
radiation threshold in PVPS, and pumping operation
can not start below this value (Fraidenraich and Vilela,
2000). The threshold of PV pumping system depends on
the characteristics of the system components including
PV array conguration. After the system starts up, it will
pump water at a rate that depends on the intensity of the
radiation. Ht;crit is thus an important parameter to adjust
system operation time during a certain period. The lower
value of Ht;crit results in longer operation-time with the
expense of more PV array area, and thus it is not an
objective function for an ecient optimization. Ht;crit is
also not an appropriate choice to predict the useful
power for PVPS since the system behavior is nonlinear.
Loxsom and Durongkaverdi (1994) have used a super-

position methodology to determine utilizability for


PVPS. They have rst divided the non-linear curve to
two straight/linear lines to apply utilizability concept
and then added contributions of these two regions to
recover initial solar radiation interval.
We here bring out a new approach to perform utilizability calculations by dening an utilizability-factor
(/) that appear to be more appropriate in designing DCPVPS. The main objective here is to nd the most-utilizable solar radiation interval for the system. This
interval will then be used to optimize PV array conguration in the next section. Since PV panel output varies
nonlinearly with solar radiation, the utilizability-factor
must then be dened in terms of panel-power-output (or
pumped-water-rate). We here consider panel-poweroutput since it eventually linearly aects water-output.
The / is dened here as the ratio of monthly peakpower-outputs of the single-panel obtained at selected
radiation interval (between Ht;1 and Ht;2 ) to that at all
radiation levels (between 0 and Ht;max ),
/

P MPP jHt;1 6 Ht 6 Ht;2


P MPP j0<Ht 6 Ht;max

18

Needless to say that the necessary condition here is


Ht;1 > Ht;crit since we will use this interval to optimize PV
array conguration and we would like our optimization
to be eective when the system is in operation.
For simplicity in determining the radiation interval,
we constructed the radiation bins for each month as seen
in Fig. 6(a) and calculated each bins utilizability-factor
/ with Eq. (18). The panel is inclined with the optimal
monthly slope presented in the previous section. A
bottom limit for the value of / has to be specied to
further the calculations, but we, at the moment, do not
have any mathematical expression or well-dened criteria to accomplish this. The targeted value of /min is

Z.A. Firatoglu, B. Yesilata / Solar Energy 77 (2004) 8193

its neighbor bin(s) until /min is exceeded. As an example


in Fig. 6(a), for the month of May, the most utilizable
radiation bin with / 0:5 is 700800 (W/m2 ). When we
add its neighbor radiation bin (600700 W/m2 ), total
utilization of these two bins reach to the value of /
0:716 which is now larger than /min . Hence the solar
radiation interval to be used in optimization for the
corresponding month is Ht;1 600 W/m2 and Ht;2 800
W/m2 . The utilizability factors of each radiation bin
considered here for the all months of the year are shown
in Fig. 6(b) whereas the selected radiation intervals for
those months are given in Table 2.

60
AP-50

50

(%)

40
30
20
10
0

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900


2

(a)

Ht (W/m )

4.2. Optimal PV array conguration

70
60

40

30

20
7

0
900

9
700
2

500

Ht (W/m )

nth

10

mo

(%)

50

(b)

89

11
300

100

Fig. 6. The utilizability of each radiation bin: (a) in May, (b)


during the year.

chosen here as 0.7, implying that the system will be


optimized to operate near MPP during at least 70% of
monthly sunny period. We reached this value by
numerical observation: signicantly higher (lower) values of /min corresponds to wider (narrower) non-linear
optimization region, and both cause in cost-penalty to
reach the same power-output obtained in the next section. The choice of /min is strongly site-dependent; and
hence calculations of system-outputs for various values
of /min may help to reach nal decision.
Once the value of /min is decided, the next step is to
start from the most utilizable radiation bin and then add

The objective in optimizing the conguration of the


PV array is to maximize the volumetric rate of the
pumped water for each month. We seek here a solution
that provides the system to operate at or near to MPP in
the selected radiation interval. In mathematical sense,
we minimize the area between MPPC and EOPC in this
region. For a given solar radiation, a perpendicular triangle area can be formed between MPP and EOP, as
seen in Fig. 5 (reproduced geometric part on the right is
only for discussion purpose). Each perpendicular edge of
the triangle represents the dierences in voltage (DV
VMPP  VEOP ) and the current (DI IMPP  IEOP ) between
these two points. We aim to nd a relationship between
the area of the triangle and area-dierence of two rectangulars that corresponds to the power dierence between MPP and EOP. From the Fig. 5, it is obvious that
the area of triangle (ab=2) decreases as the dierence
between two rectangular areas (xb  ya) decreases although there may be quiet dierence between their
magnitudes. Let us write the following relations:
IMPP VMPP  IEOP VEOP xb  ya;

19

IMPP  IEOP VMPP  IEOP ab=2:

20

For a given (solar radiation and panel conguration)


case, we can always use the fact that the short edge of
the rectangular is a fraction of the long one. That is
x Na and y Mb, and thus
IMPP VMPP  IEOP VEOP Nab  Mab abN  M:

21

The power dierence is then obtained multiplying the


area of triangle by 2N  M. Although the

Table 2
The optimal values of the monthly solar radiation interval (W/m2 )
Months
Ht;1  Ht;2

1
300400

2
400700

3
500700

4
500800

5
600800

6
500900

Months
Ht;1  Ht;2

7
500800

8
600800

9
500800

10
400700

11
400600

12
300500

90

Z.A. Firatoglu, B. Yesilata / Solar Energy 77 (2004) 8193

proportionality is nonlinear since N N VMPP ; VEOP


and M MIMPP ; IEOP are not constant over various
operating conditions, there exist a monotonic relation.
That is; among various operating conditions under
comparison, the smallest power dierence corresponds
to smallest area of the triangle created.
As elegantly presented by one of the reviewers, one
can also reach the same conclusion by considering MPP
on one of the IV curves plotted in Fig. 4 for various
solar radiation levels. Any move away from this point
must, by denition, reduce the power output from the
panel. Similarly the further away the operating point
from the MPP, the greater the area of the triangle created
provided that the movement away from the MPP must
always be in the same direction. The triangle created by
an operating point at a lower voltage than VMPP cannot
be compared with a triangle created by increasing the
voltage, as the g  V (or P  V ) curve is not symmetrical
about the VMPP line. It may also be worth pointing out
that the value IMPP  IEOP VMPP  VEOP has no physical
meaning in itself but is an indicator of how close to the
MPP the EOP is, and only has relevance when various
EOP curves are compared as explained below. For various possible PV-array congurations, we search minimum value of the triangle-area by dening a statistical
array-decision parameter dened as
"P
r

n
i0 IMPP

 IEOP i VMPP  VEOP i =Ht;1 i  DHt i 2


m

#1=2
;
22

where m is the number of scanned values of solar radiation between Ht;1 and Ht;2 (also equal to number of
triangles formed in the selected interval). The value of m
is equal to Ht;2  Ht;1 =DHt , where DHt is the solar
radiation increment at each step. DHt 10 W/m2 is
found to be good enough to reach an accurate solution.
The Eq. (22) resembles root-mean-square (RMS) formula but is not the same. It is indeed a relative measure
of power dierence, total area of n-triangles formed,
between the two curves in a given solar radiation interval. The value of r varies with the PV array conguration (panel numbers and their electrical connection), and
the lowest r indicates the best conguration among
those under examination. One can also directly use
IMPP VMPP  IEOP VEOP instead of IMMP  IEOP VMPP 
IEOP in r equation and lead to selecting the same
conguration with the expense of considerably more

computer time because of an additional multiplication


of the nonlinear parameter of 2N  M.
We here examined 43 dierent possible congurations for the PV array with 48, 50, 54, 60, and 64 individual panels. These panel numbers are decided by
considering the nominal power of the DC motor used
here. The optimal PV array conguration for each
month is determined and the results are given in Table 3.
It is remarkable that the conguration of 10 in parallel
and 5 in series (10P  5S) is the best for most part of the
year and there are only three dierent congurations to
be considered in whole-year-use. The analysis also
proves that better system performance with less PV
array area (PV modules) can be obtained by accurate
selection of the conguration. The system operation
characteristics for the three congurations are given in
Fig. 7 to illustrate that the best math between MPPC
and EOPC is obtained in the selected solar radiation
interval (circled region).

5. The pumped water-rate and the performance


The nal step of the method outlined here is to calculate volumetric rate of the water and the system performance throughout the year. The yearly distribution
of the pumped water (calculated with Eq. (15) using by
DHref 10 m) is shown in Fig. 8(a). It is important to
note that the ow rate proles are kept quiet similar for
most part of the year, which correspond to (10P  5S)
array conguration. The jumps in the ow rate for the
months of March and November are due to using more
PV modules (60 versus 50), and conversely the low ow
rates in January and December are because of using less
modules (48 versus 50) at much lower radiation level. It
should be noted that our objective in optimizing the
conguration here is to maximize the delivered water per
PV panel over each month during 1-year period. This
can be done if the system operates as near as peak-power
points for corresponding solar radiation. Therefore, due
to signicant variation in solar radiation level in various
seasons, pumped-water-rate will vary. We expect however from the methodology presented here to provide
insignicant variations in the yearly distribution of the
dimensionless system performance as shown in Fig. 8(b).
The performance is normalized with the performance
that would be obtained if system had operated at MPP
for all radiation levels. Hence the dimensionless system

Table 3
The optimal conguration for the PV array
Months
P  Sopt

1
12  4

2
10  5

3
12  5

4
10  5

5
10  5

6
10  5

Months
P  Sopt

7
10  5

8
10  5

9
10  5

10
10  5

11
12  5

12
12  4

Z.A. Firatoglu, B. Yesilata / Solar Energy 77 (2004) 8193

40

MPP
EOP

1000 W/m

35

900 W/m

30

800 W/m

900 W/m

25

800 W/m

700 W/m

I (A)

I (A)

700 W/m

600 W/m

20

20

600 W/m

15

500 W/m

15

500 W/m

400 W/m

400 W/m

10

300 W/m

300 W/m

10

200 W/m

200 W/m

100 W/m

100 W/m

(a)

10

20

MPP
EOP

1000 W/m

30

25

91

30

40
V (V)

50

60

70

80

10

20

30

40

(b)

40
900 W/m

30

800 W/m

70

80

90 100

MPP
EOP

1000 W/m

35

50 60
V (V)

700 W/m

I (A)

25

600 W/m

20

500 W/m

15

400 W/m

10

300 W/m

200 W/m

100 W/m

10

20

30

40

(c)

50 60
V (V)

70

80

90 100

Fig. 7. The system operation characteristics for the congurations of: (a) 12P  4S, (b) 10P  5S, and (c) 12P  5S.

performance is gs =gMPP . The 3-D plot impressively show


that the system operate close to MPP for most part of
the day and year as well. This nal illustration can be
considered as an indication for success of the optimization procedure outlined and applied here.
There are some cautions in interpretations of these
results to real-life situations. First of all the methodology is based on long-term monthly averaged data during
1-year period, and thus dierences in PV system
parameters (numbers of modules and their electrical
congurations) and system-outputs (i.e. water-ow-rate)
for various months are expected due to dierences in
incident solar radiation and ambient-temperature for
dierent seasons. Neither connecting/disconnecting
various panels nor changing panel conguration may
seem practical for users. There is however possibility of
using a constant number of panels with a xed array
conguration for a specied time-period. For example,
in seasonal use of the system, one can choose to use
10P  5S array conguration for spring, summer, and

even for fall and 12P  4S for winter. In whole-year-use


of the system, one can again decide using 10P  5S array
conguration. The trade-o is to operate the system
further from the peak-power-points for some months
than the calculated optimum array conguration. For
instance, in yearly use case for this site, the user needs to
re-examine the water outputs for the months of January,
March, November, and December since in those months
the selected 10P  5S array conguration is not the
optimum one.
There are some cases in real application where theow rate is far more important than optimum matching
of the array to the pump. Even in these cases, pumpedwater-rate will vary during the selected time-period for a
xed array conguration. The array conguration must
then be decided to meet minimum daily, monthly, or
annual water requirements. The system is designed by
considering the worst conditions (i.e. the lowest solar
radiation), and excess water obtained at better weather
condition is stored for the other needs. Although the

Z.A. Firatoglu, B. Yesilata / Solar Energy 77 (2004) 8193

Q (lt/s)

92

voltaic water pumping systems. The algorithm


developed here includes three new and important approaches that result in a simple, fast, and reasonably
accurate solution with no numerical problems. The
available long-term meteorological data on hourly basis
for the design-site (Sanliurfa, Turkey) and manufacturer
data for the system components (given in the Appendix
A) are necessary to perform calculations. The proposed
three approaches are:

16
12
8
4
0
5

11

(i) calculating the optimal monthly slope by a linear


search method from the measured meteorological
data;
(ii) determining optimal solar radiation interval with
the aid of utilizability concept;
(iii) selecting the optimal PV array conguration by
searching minimum value of a statistical array-decision parameter.

7
13
15

3
17

(a)

19

on

th

11

hour

90

eop mmp(%)

80
70
60
50
11
40

(b)

5
9

11

hour

13

3
15

17

19

nth

7
5

mo

30

Fig. 8. The yearly variation of: (a) the pumped water and (b)
the dimensionless system performance.

methodology described here is not based on for a specied minimum water requirement and total head loss,
the monthly congurations determined here are still the
best ones for the site as long as the amount of monthly
pumped water fullls the need and are consumed in the
corresponding month. Alternatively; if there is no specic monthly water-use-prole whilst only the deliveredannually water amount is important, the sum of those
found here for each month is also the maximum water to
be delivered in a year with the determined optimum
array congurations for the site. As mentioned before,
in real application, if the total head loss (DH ) is dierent
than the selected value of DHref here, one must then
multiply the ow-rates given in Fig. 8(a) by DHref =DH to
nd the corresponding one.

These approaches appear to be quiet feasible. In


application of the rst approach, a simple manual
tracking system to adjust the PV array-slope, only once
in a month, to the optimal monthly slope is necessary.
The collected monthly average daily solar radiation
remarkably increases with this treatment. We move from
the utilizability concept in implementing the second
approach that enables us to concentrate on the most
eective solar radiation region for the optimization.
Hence, we have considered a certain part of the nonlinear curve rather than dealing with the full curve,
resulting in less computer load/time and better chance
for approaching peak-power points in this interval.
In the last approach, dening a statistical parameter
that is monotonic function of power dierence between
peak-power and operation points enables us easy,
fast and accurate selection of the optimal array conguration. We have been able to examine 43 dierent
array congurations to reach nal decision for each
month.
The methodology presented here is applicable to any
other site in the world as long as long-term weather data
is available. Such data are already present for most part
of the world. The use of such a substantial weather data
may seem a disadvantage for the methodology although
the proposed approaches signicantly reduce the
amount of computation. However, the subject deserves
every eort to provide full and ecient utilization since
at the present time PV systems still suer from high
installation costs and low eciencies.

6. Summary and conclusions

Acknowledgements

We here present a multi-step optimization methodology to improve utilization of a direct-coupled photo-

We acknowledge The Scientic Research Committee


of Harran University for the nancial support (under

Z.A. Firatoglu, B. Yesilata / Solar Energy 77 (2004) 8193

HUBAK Project# 440) and one of the anonymous


reviewers for contributing to clarify many serious points.

Appendix A
PV module (AP-50)
Standard test conditions (STC)
Voc 21:5 V, Vmmp 16:7 V, Isc 3:3;
Immp 3:0 A
Cell temperature coecients
Short circuit temperature coecient
lIsc 0:9 mA/C
Open circuit temperature coecient
lVoc 0:10 V/C
Module features
Number of cells in series in one module
Ns 40
Dimensions (in mm) 858.0 660.0 35.0
Transmissivity (s) 1 (no glass cover)
Absorbsivity (a) 0.8 (single-crystal silicon)
DC motor (permanent magnet)
Nominal test conditions (NTC)
P 2983 W, V 115 V, I 35 A,
Ra 0:17 X

Pompa (centrifugal)
z 5, b1 50, b2 40, R1 0:032 m,
R2 0:088 m, b1 0:012 m, b2 0:02 m.

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