Design and Simulation of Solar Photovoltaic Water
Pumping System
2020 3rd International Conference on Energy, Power and Environment: Towards Clean Energy Technologies | 978-1-6654-2536-0/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICEPE50861.2021.9404473
Krishnakant
Department of Electrical Engineering
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology
Nagpur, India
krishnakant.ml26@gmail.com
Abstract—Water demand for irrigation, livestock, rural areas
and agriculture keeps on increasing by the day in India. Most
Farmers are using the same conventional techniques for irri-
gation purposes. As we know, the cost of fuel and electricity
is rising constantly and due to no grid connection in rural
areas, solar photovoltaic water system pumping (SPVWPS) is
the best alternative for irrigation and other purposes. SPVWPS
ensures long product life and it has a very low maintenance
cost. Hence, solar photovoltaic water system pumping can be
a solution to fulfil the demand. The aim of this study is to
design and simulate the solar photovoltaic water pumping system.
Designing and simulation of an SPVWPS is being done by the
software PVsyst Version 6.87. For a case study and simulation, a
village called Bhagipur, near Etah district Uttar Pradesh, India
(27.63◦ N 78.67◦ E) has been preferred as a location. Results show
the effect of various performance parameters such as (global
Irradiation, diffuse Irradiation, Temperature, etc) on the system.
Paper further shows system losses over the whole year.
Index Terms—PVsyst, Renewable energy, Solar water pump,
SPVWPS, Stand alone PV system.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Agriculture an important sector for India, which shares
almost 16 percent share of Indian GDP and to attain the water
demand for agriculture sector or other sectors is still a big task
and key area to explore [1]. The demand for Water supply for
these purposes keeps rising steadily in India due to climate
changes and the level of water is varying accordingly [2].
Water pumping from bore-wells, ponds, etc requires energy
supply which can be taken either from conventional energy
sources (Diesel generator etc.) or the grid. Due to fuel cost
and no grid connection in rural areas, water pumping becomes
more tough and costly for irrigation and other sectors. To
solve these difficulties, renewable energy sources have gained
attention and could be a better alternative. Among all the
renewable sources, solar photovoltaic energy has vast potential
and preferred as an eco-friendly option. In India, Solar energy
is available almost everywhere and it can be used for various
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P S Kulkarni, Member, IEEE
Department of Electrical Engineering
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology
Nagpur, India
pskulkarni@eee.vnit.ac.in
applications and a lot of studies have been published to
explore and understand the parameters such as feasibility and
economical factor of SPVWPS [3,4]. There are three types
of solar photovoltaic systems, Grid-tied PV system, stand-
alone PV system and Hybrid PV systems. So, the aim of
this work is to design a stand-alone solar photovoltaic water
pumping system for a prefered location as Village Bhagipur,
District-Etah, U.P. This paper presents the design of solar
photovoltaic water pumping system and shows the effect of
a different parameter such as flow-rate, water pumped, etc on
the SPVWPS throughout the year.
As Singh, et al. proposed the design, it has to be studied
before the installation of the pump. This study was performed
by the PVsyst software. Results from PVsyst could be the
rough estimates for an instalment of the solar water pump at
any location. Water requirements vary from day to day but
water demand for a day is enough for a period of simulation
[5]. Correa, et al. presented a study which optimizes the effi-
ciency of solar photovoltaic conversion using an MPPT. MPPT
works on hybrid algorithms by switching the Perturb and
observe and incremental conductance method to a Constant
Voltage mode. It can work properly for the condition such
as fast irradiation change. Paper showed a minimum losses
point tracking approach to minimize the losses of the induction
motor. Authors also validated a method to reduce the payback
time of solar photovoltaic water pumping system. Power
saving almost 8 percent of power input could be obtained
[6]. Another study by Saputra, et al. proposed renewable
energy like solar and wind can be a key option to the water
pumping system. In this study, Data regarding solar radiation
and wind speed effects the operation of a pump accordingly
and battery charging is being done and takes almost 6 to
7 hours to charge depending upon the weather condition.
Authors have concentrated their research more on wind energy
and showed how the wind energy affects the discharging and
charging of batteries, the voltage generated etc [7]. A study by
Megalingam and Gedela proposed an automated water pump
powered by solar energy for eco-friendly irrigation. In this
paper, an automated water pump refers that whenever the
moisture content of the soil is below the critical level, the water
pump will be switched on. And the proposed method helps to
move on towards automation in the irrigation field. A flow
chart has been presented which allows to sense the moisture
in the field and control the system [8]. A study by Moharil and
Kulkarni proposed a design and performance of SPVWPS. In
this paper, the selection of a proper type of pipe size is very
essential for SPVWPS. By changing the azimuth angle,the
required wattage will be cheap and can be achieved easily
compared to MPPT method [9]. Before the installation of a
solar photovoltaic water pumping system (SPVWPS), Study
is essential to determine the performance parameters which
will affect the performance of SPVWPS. So, the aim of this
work is to design and simulate the SPVWPS for a preferred
location. It presents the design of a solar photovoltaic water
pumping system and shows the effect of a different parameter
such as flow-rate, water pumped, etc through-out the year.
This paper is organized as follows: Section II describes the
components and schematic diagram of SPVWPS. Section III
proposes a design of solar photovoltaic water pumping system
and focuses on the orientation of PV panels, hydraulic system,
components of PV system such as solar PV panels, MPPT, etc.
and the detailed losses of SPVWPS. Section IV describes the
results of the designed system and Section V summaries the
conclusion of the paper.
II. SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC WATER PUMPING
SYSTEM
Solar Photovoltaic Water Pumping system (SPVWPS) is an
eco-friendly system to pump the water. Figure 1 represents the
schematic diagram of SPVWPS.
Fig. 1. Basic schematic diagram of SPVWPS
Solar PV panel, pump controller (MPPT), centrifugal sur-
face pump and storage tank and pipes are the main components
of a system.
1). Solar PV panel: There are various types of PV panels
such as Monocrystalline, polycrystalline, thin-film and bi-
facial type. Bi-facial is a new trend for solar PV panel which
is more efficient comparatively [10]. For the water pump, the
selection of PV panel depends upon daily water requirement,
the efficiency of the pumping system etc.
2). Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller: The
aim of MPPT is to transfer the maximum power from the
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PV system to load using different algorithms [11]. For the
maximum power transfer, input impedance should be equal to
the net impedance of solar modules. 3). Centrifugal surface
pump: It is used to induce flow or raise a liquid from low
level to high level. It converts the rotational energy to energy
in a moving fluid with the help of a motor.
Storage tank pipes can be selected according to the need of
the user. For a different type of material of the pipe, friction
losses change and no. of elbows in the pumping system also
causes the friction losses.
III. DESIGNING OF SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC WATER
PUMPING SYSTEM
Solar water pumping is to be designed here using PVsyst
V6.89. At the starting to simulate, location is to be chosen by
the geographical Meteo-database. For this study, coordinate
of district Etah state Uttar Pradesh is taken for solar pump
design. Plane orientation in which tilt angle and type of plane
plays a key role to optimize solar energy.
A. Orientation
There are three types of a plane- fixed plane, one-axis
tracking and two-axis tracking plane available for the solar
PV system. Here, a fixed plane has been chosen which is
an economical choice. Tilt angle should be taken for a plane
such that loss with respect to optimum is to minimize almost 0
percentage and global radiation on the plane will be maximum.
Optimization is done with respect to yearly irradiation yield
and tilt angle is 28.6 degree with azimuth zero degrees as per
the location.
Fig. 2. Orientation of PV panels
B. Pumping Hydraulic System
Water pumping system could be different types like deep
well to the storage, lake or river to the storage, pressurization
etc. and for the agriculture purpose, deep well to storage type
of system can be used easily. In this case, the pump will be
deep inside and it pumps the water to the over-headed storage
tank. Figure 3 shows the different levels of the deep well
system. For the solar water pumping system, the deep well
system is preferred.
 Fig. 4. flowrate v/s power

Fig. 3. Deep well System

Where:
HG = head due to the height of the outlet pipe above the
ground, (in meter).
HS = static head due to the depth of the water level in the
bore-well, without pump (in meter)
HD = dynamic drawdown head in a bore well, (in meter).
HF = friction losses in the piping circuit, (meter).
According to the location, Static head is 40 m, maximum
pumping head is 43 m, pump depth is 44 m and DN150 (6
inches) is used for the piping which will decide the friction
losses in the SPVWPS. the Number of elbows is 5 and the
total length of piping length is 50 m. Daily average water
requirement is 50 m3 per day for a year.

C. System
Selection procedure of pump and solar PV panel is de-
scribed here. The Pump will be defined according to the needs
which are generally static head, required hydraulic energy
to system etc. As per the suggested pump power 3.1 kW
by PVsyst, Lorentz PS 4000 C-SJ8-15 centrifugal multistage
with DC motor, brushless with a maximal power 3400 W,
240 V and 13.8 A maximum current can be used with a
variable efficiency as per the flow rate. Suggested PV power is
approximately 3.9 kWp and solar panel with 300 Wp 27 V Si-
mono LG 300 N1C-B3 of LG electronics will be used for solar
energy to electrical energy conversion. Figure 4 represents a
graph of flow rate versus the electrical power of the pump for
different values of the head. As the electrical power increases,
the flow rate also increases but static head increases then the
electrical requirement for the pump will be more. Figure 5
represents the variation of efficiency of the pump as a function
of flowrate for different values of the head. As the flow rate
increases, the efficiency increases and becomes saturated at a
particular point.
Fig. 5. Global efficiency v/s flowrate
To understand any solar PV panel, graph between power and
voltage, current and voltage play a vital role. These graphs can
be drawn at different incident irradiance at a fixed temperature
or variable. In Figure 6, a graph between current and Power
of PV panel shows that as incident irradiance reduces, short
circuit current of the PV panel also decreases. Figure 7 shows
power and voltage characteristics which represent that the PV
panel provides the output power 275.5 W at STC condition.
The Efficiency of the solar panel varies according to the
temperature so higher the temperature, lower the efficiency of
the PV panel. At STC 1000 W/m2 efficiency is 18.3 percent
of LG solar module. Figure 8 shows the effect of temperature
over the efficiency of solar PV panel and also indicates that as
the incident global radiation increases, the efficiency becomes
saturated at a particular temperature [12]. PV panel output
depends upon the position of the sun. To utilize the maximum
solar power of the PV system for a load should be done
in a very efficient way. MPPT is a technique to find the

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maximum power point at a particular irradiance and extracts
the maximum power available in the PV system.
Fig. 6. I-V characteristics
Fig. 7. P-V characteristics
Fig. 8. efficiency v/s incident global
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The function of maximum power point tracking (MPPT)
controller affects the overall performance of the system so the
selection of the MPPT controller is very important to give
better performance for the whole system. The efficiency of an
MPPT controller is shown in Figure 9. Here, Lorentz PS2-
4000 rated at 4.0 kW MPPT DC controller is used for this
SPVWPS.
Lorentz PS2-4000 MPPT DC controller
Fig. 9. Efficiency v/s output power
PV energy suggested by PVsyst is almost 3.8 kWp (nom-
inal). To support this, how many solar panels and how much
area will be required for a solar plant? This calculation is based
on the rated power of a single PV module and according to that
PV array can be designed. The number of modules, strings,
operating condition for solar PV plant and area required by
the PV panels is shown in Figure 10.
Fig. 10. PV Array design
D. Detailed losses
• Field Thermal Loss Factor: Thermal behaviour is charac-
terized by a factor called thermal factor and designed here
by U-value (also called K-value). U-value can be split into
a constant component Uc and a factor proportional to the
wind velocity Uv .
U = Uc + Uv ∗ v (1)
(Uc in [W/m2 k], Uv in [W/m2 k/m/s], v = wind velocity
in [m/s]).
The calculation of these parameters Uc and Uv is indeed
a big question. Some reliable measured data are here
for free mounted arrays, but there is a severe lack of
information when the modules are integrated [13]. For
this study, free-standing systems will be preferred and
 For free-standing systems (with air circulation all around IV. R ESULTS
the collectors), according to our measurements on several
installations: Uc = 29 W/m2 k Uv = 0 W/m2 k/m/s
The solar photovoltaic water pumping system was designed
• Ohmic Losses: To connect the modules, the wire is
for the agriculture purposes and to fulfil the water requirement
required and ohmic losses depend upon the length, area
50 m3 /day with a deep well to storage type system at a well
and type of that wire. For the 16 modules or one string
static depth of 40 m. As per the need, selection of pump with
with 8 modules each are used with configuration such
a proper head, selection of PV module and MPPT controller is
that section area is 50 mm2 , 10 m average length per
done accordingly and further, the effect of different parameters
circuit. Current flowing per circuit will be 9.4 A through
on SPVWPS has been studied.
a resistance 4 mOhm. Resistance of the global array is
1.88 mOhm. 8 kg will be the total copper mass of the
total wiring and the voltage across the diode is taken as Normalized Production (per installed kWp)
0.7 V.
• Module efficiency loss: It is the deviation of the average
effective module efficiency with respect to manufacturer
specification. To design an SPVWPS, 3 percent module
efficiency loss has been taken for this research.
• LID loss factor (Light Induced Degradation): It is degra-
dation of crystalline silicon modules, in the first operating
hours with respect to the manufacturing flash test STC
values. 2 percent LID loss factor is taken.
• Module Mismatch Losses: Mismatch losses are caused
due to interconnection of different types of PV panel
with different properties or due to some of PV panels
experiencing different conditions from one another such
as shading. Here, the system will simulate at 1 percent
power loss at MPP and 2.5 percent losses when running
Fig. 12. Energy Production
at a fixed voltage not relevant when MPPT operation.
• IAM Losses (Incident Angle Modifier): It corresponds to
the decrease of the irradiance really reaching the surface Figure 13 shows the normalized production table and energy
of the PV cell with respect to irradiance under normal distribution. Nominal power is 4800 Wp. If the tank is full
incidence. For this design of the solar pump, 2.1 percent then unused energy will be 2.62 kWh/kWp/day, collection
IAM losses have been mentioned at STC condition. losses and system losses are 0.66 kWh/kWp/day and 0.09
Global losses in Figure 12 includes losses for a module kWh/kWp/day respectively. effective energy at the pump is
and here 8 modules in series, 2 string in parallel supports 2.17 kWh/kWp/day. Figure 14 shows the performance ratio
the required energy for the SPVWPS. In the system, 4.79 (PR) which is the ratio of effective energy to the irradiance
kW Pmpp (maximum power point) array and Total global for a given time and for this SPVWPS, PR is 0.392.
losses are 13.1 percent so resultant Pmpp array will be
4.16 kW.
Performance Ratio

Fig. 11. Global Losses at STC condition Fig. 13. Performance ratio

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 TABLE I by PVsyst to design a solar photovoltaic water pumping system
BALANCES AND M AIN RESULTS which works at an efficiency of 51.3 percent and performance
Unused ratio 0.392. Water requirement is 18250 m3 /year and water
Global Pump
eff.
Array
opr.
energy Missing pumped is 17061 m3 /year throughout the year. So, the missing
Month
radiation
energy
energy
(tank water water is 1187.2 m3 /year which indicates 6.5 percent water is
full)
kWh/mˆ2 kWh kWh kWh mˆ3 missing throughout the year.
January 134.7 564.8 306.8 240.4 251.2 Future work is aimed at designing SPVWPS with minimum
February 160.5 652.4 312.2 305.4 102 losses, reducing the amount of missing water and also improv-
March 194.6 763.1 355.5 370.5 68
April 187.3 714.6 344.8 347.9 38.6 ing the performance ratio of stand alone SPVWPS etc.
May 183.9 696.5 355.7 318.7 23.9
June 148.2 571.9 329.2 223 28.4 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
July 128.5 503.3 329.5 154 48.6 The authors are grateful to the authorities of Visvesvaraya
August 142.9 561.7 332.3 209.4 70.7
September 153.3 598.2 318.5 259.1 113.9
National Institute of Technology Nagpur, India for providing
October 170.0 668.9 339.3 309.8 126.6 the facilities and support to carry out the present work.
November 151.6 617.3 321.7 277.9 144
December 149.0 622.3 329.1 275.3 171.2 R EFERENCES
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V. CONCLUSION
As the water demand keeps increasing and with depletion
of fossil fuels, there should be an alternative of conventional
methods to pump the water. This paper has proposed a method

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