Solar energy harvesting for irrigation water pumping system

This paper deals with the design and modelling of stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) water pumping system for rural and irrigational purpose. The efficiency of the PV module can be improved by operating at its maximum power point irrespective of insolation level. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) becomes poor when PV receives non-uniform insolation which effect efficiency of the water pumping system. An induction motor (IM) is used to drive the water pump which has the wide range of speed operation. The Perturb and Observe (P&O) method with the help of DC-DC converter is able to track the maximum power point in the changing isolation conditions. The speed control of IM drive is achieved by v/f control algorithm which improves the dynamics of the PV fed water pumping system. The proposed system is modeled in the MATLAB
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environment to test the performance of system. Simulated results under various insolation levels of the proposed system have been presented.