Solar Water Pumping
Solar water pumping is based on PV technology that converts sunlight into electricity to pump water. The PV panels are connected to a motor which converts electrical energy supplied by the PV panel into mechanical energy which is converted to hydraulic energy by the pump.
This system can have be configured into two ways depending on the type of motor running the pump.
Types Of Solar Pump
⦁ Dc Solar pump ; in this type of configuration, the direct current generated by solar array is fed into the pump through pump controller . The pump controller consists of the maximum powert point tracker (MPPT) and other system electronics to control the output of the solar array and required to input to the DC pump.
⦁ Ac Solar pump ; In AC pump configuration the DC supply from the solar array is converted into AC via inverter to fed into the pump motor. Under this configuration the pump controller consists of a MPPT for solar array, inverter to convert DC to AC ,variable frequency drive (VFD) to control the AC input to the pump motor and other system electronics to control the operation of the Solar Water Pumping System. The VFD in controller eliminates the high starting current of the induction motor and controls the frequency and voltage of the AC input to the motor, Therefore resulting in efficient and smooth operation of the pump.
ACHIVEMENTS
⦁ 6.7KW FIRST PHASE SOLAR WATER PUMPING SYSTEM TO A PRIVATE CLIENT’S FARM AT NDERA IN RWANDA.
⦁ 7.2KW SECOND PHASE SOLAR WATER PUMPING SYSTEM TO A PRIVATE CLIENT’S FARM AT NDERA FARM IN RWANDA.