Solar Powered Irrigation Pumps with Optimum Power Transfer

This paper presents the technical, financial and agro-economic aspects of solar powered irrigation pumps. The scheme consists of a PV array, followed by a boost converter for tracking the maximum power point and for impedance matching purpose. The output from the boost converter is fed to a three phase inverter and then to an induction motor-pump set. Rate of flow of water is decided by V/f control of induction motor to provide the optimum power output for a particular head. The pump output is controlled in order to set a MPPT tracking at the solar panel output. Few important crops that are grown all over the world are being examined taking into account the evapotranspiration, seepage and percolation losses. Utmost care has been taken so that the overall cost of the system is low by not considering any storage devices.