Bi-objective Optimization based Sizing of a Standalone Solar PV Pumping System for Water Demand of an Agricultural Farm

Egypt’s natural resources are subjected to intense pressure coming from the growing population, economy expansion and climate change. The development and management of the available resources of water, land and energy is a must to cope with the population’s needs. The proposed work is aimed at designing a solar PV system for pumping water to serve irrigation and domestic purposes in an agricultural farm with 1 hectare area representing a case study in new Assiut city instead of the traditional diesel pumping systems, which are currently used. The farm plants two crops; wheat in winter and maize in summer season. The PV system will benefit in reducing the emission of greenhouse gases and climatic changes. The proposed PV system considers the properties of underground water wells and how to use them effectively to avoid depletion of water resources. Modelling and optimal sizing of the components of PV irrigation system (PV modules, water tanks) was established using Genetic Algorithm (GA) method built in MATLAB software with two objective functions aimed at minimizing both the cost of energy (COE) and greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions with the constraint of zero loss of power supply probability (LPSP). The results showed that the size of the system is 12kW PV modules with 115m
³
water tanks giving COE of 0.3389${\$}$/kWh and GHG emissions of 562.77 kg/year.