Mbabane Solar Photovoltaic Water Pump Installation

When designing a solar pumping system, the designer must match the individual components together. A solar water pumping system consists of three major components: the solar array, pump controller and electric water pump (motor and pump) as shown in Figure 1.

A solar pumping system is a system that converts solar energy into electricity and drives a pump for water supply. The photovoltaic power generation system operates fully without manual duty. It is composed of solar panels, a solar pump inverter and water pump.

The type of solar water pumping system: borehole/well (submerged), floating or surface will depend on the water source. If the source is a borehole (proposed or existing) or deep well, then a submersible pump that fits the borehole or well should be selected. If the water source is a river, then a surface pump should usually be selected.

The fundamental basis for the design of any mechanised pumping system is the water demand of the eventual users of the water system. Determining how much water a community needs is a complicated process but an essential step in the design. The basic components of calculating water demand include: assessing any existing system water losses.

Based on a tilt angle of 18 degrees, the lowest ratio is 0.438 so June will be the design month. If this is finalised as the design month, the solar water pumping system must then be selected based on an irradiation of 4.38kWh/m2 and the required flow of 10 m3 or 10000 litres (2,642 gallons). angle. This is shown in Table 12

So, should 13m3 or 13000 litres (3434 gallons) @ irradiation of 5.4kWh/m2 be used for selecting a solar water pumping system or should 10 m3 (or 2642 gallons) @ irradiation of 4.38 kWh/m2 be used? In reality both could be used and it is possible that the same system would be selected for both. If this is the case, then the array