EE/PH/MM301: Energy Supplies

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC

School of Engineering and Physics
EE/PH/MM301: Energy Supplies

Experiment 13:Solar Water Pumping

Lab Session Time: Wednesday (2pm 5pm)

Student Name:

Ashwal Kumar (s11098607)

Kishan Prasad (s11119618)
Ryan Bale (s11078457)
Shivneel Singh(s11120598)

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this lab is to:

Measure the efficiency of a solar water pumping system

Investigate the operating characteristics of the solar water pumping system under various conditions
Gain an understanding of the use and application of solar water pumping

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Solar water pumps have been in mass production since 1983 and are in use in thousands

Of locations around the world. Pumps that are designed to be powered by solar energy are

Far more efficient than an equivalent AC powered pump. There are many types of pumps

And systems available for pumping from deep wells, shallow wells, ponds and streams.

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Advantages of Solar Water Pumping:

Easy installation
Low maintenance
Simple and reliable
No fuel spills or costs
Unattended operation
Mobility option

Solar irradiance is the power per unit area received from the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation in
the wavelength range of the measuring instrument. Irradiance may be measured in space or at the Earth's
surface after atmospheric absorption and scattering.

Some of the drawbacks of installing solar water pumping:

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Solar Inefficiency

It is generally argued that solar energy production is relatively inefficient. Usually, a solar panel can convert
22% of the energy it gets from the sun into electrical energy, meaning you need a big surface area to produce
the desired amount of electricity.

Solar power is not available at night.

Expensive to install

A photovoltaic solar powered pump system has three parts:

Solar panels.
controller
pump

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are used to pump water for livestock, plants or humans. Since the need for water
is greatest on hot sunny days the technology is an obvious choice for this application. Pumping water using
PV technology is simple, reliable, and requires almost no maintenance.

For farmers with a creek running through their properties, using a solar powered water pumping solution
means less fouling of waterways and far less erosion of banks. It can also lead to better pasture management
as livestock will be able to access water via multiple distribution points.

METHODOLOGY

The following steps were done to carry out the experiment

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The students familiarized themselves with the solar pumping system set up.
The solar panel was set so that it received the most sunlight. The incident solar radiation in the panel of
the plane was measured.
The pumping system was set up so that it pumped water to a small height. The flow rate and the head
was measured.
From these measurements, the hydraulic power required to lift the water through the given height was
calculated.
The current and voltage to the pump was measured and the pump input power was calculated.
The pump efficiency and the overall system efficiency was calculated.
Then the pumping head was varied and the effects of it on the flow rate pressure and efficiencies was
investigated.
A head was selected at which the pump provided a reasonable flow rate. Then it was investigated how
changes in input power affected the systems performance at a constant head. A graph was plotted and the
results were discussed.

RESULTS

The following raw data was recorded for post analysis;

RAW DATA
Head (m) Input Voltage (V) Input Current (I) Solar Irradiance Volume flow (

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2 3
(W /m ) m /s

0.7 11.00 2.40 101.56 0.208 103

1.0 4.50 1.85 83.25 1.84 104

1.3 4.97 1.77 66.60 1.60 104

1.6 3.36 1.562 63.825 4.40 105

CALCULATED VALUES

The raw data was then used to calculate the Hydraulic power, the Input power from solar cells, pump
efficiency and lastly the overall efficiency of the system.

Head (m) Input Power Hydraulic Pump efficiency Overall

(W) Power (W) (%) efficiency (%)

0.7 26.4 1.42 5 0.7

1.0 13.13 1.8 13 1.1

1.3 8.82 2.04 23 1.5

1.6 5.24 0.68 12 0.5

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Head (m) VS Efficiencies (%)

25

20

15 Pump efficiency (%)

Overall efficiency (%)

10

0
0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8

Head (m) VS Volume flow rate (m^3/s)

2.50E-04

2.00E-04

1.50E-04
Volume flow rate (m^3/s)

1.00E-04

5.00E-05

0.00E+00
0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8

SAMPLE CALCULATIONS
For pump input power;

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P=IV ( 11 ) ( 2.4 ) 26.4 W

For Hydraulic Power;

H . P=V flow gh ( 0.208 103 ) ( 998 )( 9.81 ) ( 0.7 ) 1.42W

For Pump efficiency;

output pump 1.42

e pump= 0.055
input pump 26.4
Overall efficiency;

output hydraulic 1.42

e overall = 0.7
input solar ( 101.56 1.98 )

DISCUSSION
1) Discuss your results and what your data shows.

The results show the following;

I. An inverse relationship between pumping head and flow rate. That is, as the pumping head increases,
the flow rate decreases. This is expected as a higher energy requirement is expected for pumping to
higher heads.
II. A directly proportional relationship between pumping head and pump efficiency. An explanation for
this may be that the pump is more effectively using the power input due to a loading that is reaching
its operational design parameters.
III. Overall efficiency is very low and so is the pump efficiency. Low efficiencies are generally expected
for most solar derived operations. But, it is worth mentioning that solar irradiance was exceedingly
low during the experiment as there was complete cloud cover overhead.

2) Estimate how much the water pumping system will daily yearly?

At the recorded flow rates (with the solar irradiance of the day), the ma flow rate of the system would be
around 8985.6 L/day. This translates to roughly 3.279 million Liters a year.

3) What would the cost for this be if electricity from the grid was used instead of from a solar panel?

33.10 cents/ kWh x 24 x 365 = $2899.50 per annum.

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4) What would it cost using a traditional petrol driven system?

Range is $1- $40 kWh x 24 x 365 = $8760 - $350400 per annum.

5) Discuss applications where solar water solar pumping could be used here in the south pacific and in
your country in particular?

It is applicable in the South Pacific and Fiji especially since Fiji is tropical country which lies close to
the equator. Its application can be:

On farms for irrigation and agriculture.

A Distillery Plant with a Solar farm with available real estate
Residential and Recreational purposes.

CONCLUSION

Solar panels only make power an average of 5hrs per day with a maximum capacity factor of 12% and are
not portable. Maximum power is limited to 100 kW at peak sun angle, which is not realistically achievable.
Due to the limited power production throughout the day with a solar system, the need to store power is
elevated unless another form of power is available to the consumer. On the other hand solar power
generation reduces cost considerably in comparison to at the expense of efficiency. Hence it can be said that
solar water pumping is not a feasible concept on a large scale but a good application for residential and
recreational purposes.

POSSIBLE SOURCES OF ERROR

The following are the possible sources of errors which may be the cause of result deviations:

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Faulty equipment
Increase in resistance of the wire since the copper / ends of them were exposed to rain
Cloudy weather which lead to a poor performance of the overall system
Fluctuations in solar irradiance make detecting efficiency difficult.

REFERENCE

[1] Dankoff, W. & McCarney, Solar Powered Water Pumping. Home Power Magazine, #11

[2]"Wind Power vs Diesel Power vs Solar Power (Comparison)", Uprise Energy | Renewable Energy &
Efficiency Innovations, 2017. [Online]. Available: http://upriseenergy.com/blog/2012/9/15/wind-power-vs-
diesel-power-vs-solar-power-comparison. [Accessed: 26- Feb- 2017].

[3]F. Authority, "Electricity Tariffs and Rates", Fea.com.fj, 2016. [Online]. Available:

http://www.fea.com.fj/your-home/electricity-tariffs-and-rates/. [Accessed: 26- Feb- 2017].

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