Experimental validation of autonomous PV-based water pumping system optimum sizing

The progress met in the world market of photovoltaics underlines the maturity of investments realized, guarantees the reliability of the technology utilized and designates the variety of applications in covering the energy demands of both stand-alone and grid connected consumers. Concerning stand-alone systems, the incorporation of photovoltaic systems in water pumping applications is thought to be one of the most popular and ideal uses of solar energy exploitation, especially under the common allegation of coincidence between insolation and water demand. In this study, an attempt to investigate the opportunities of a PV powered water pumping system able to meet additional – apart from the water pump – electricity loads, results in the development of an optimum sizing methodology which is accordingly validated by experimental measurements. From the results obtained, it becomes clear that a properly designed PV-pumping configuration of 610 W p is capable of covering both the electricity (max 2 kWh/day) and the water (max 400 L/h) management demands of a large variety of remote consumers.