Improvement of a photovoltaic pumping system for irrigation of greenhouses: Case study for Laghouat, Algeria

摘要

This paper aims to enhance the performance of a photovoltaic (PV) pumping system used for crop irrigation in greenhouses. Usually, most of the PV panels, which are used in such kind of systems, are sized and directly connected to the motopumps in a way that provide the maximum of its power. This configuration is simple, cheap, and efficient only under Standard Test Conditions (STC). In fact, environmental conditions are timevariables, and cause important power losses. In order to reduce the power losses and by consequence increasing the water flow, a dc-dc converter, controlled by a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm, has been inserted between the source and the charge. Simulation results proved a good performance of the system regarding to the gained solar energy and the daily pumped water.