Array sizing pattern and rated power operation of solar pumps in India
Sizing and power operation of solar pumps in India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21921/jas.v12i01.15227Keywords:
Solar Radiation, Irrigation Pump, Smallholders, Pressurised Irrigation, Solar ArrayAbstract
In India solar irrigation pumps are installed under a fixed scheme of operating solar array and the capacity of a pump. However, the variation in instantaneous radiation over a day and in different months varied the input power. Therefore, it is always desirable to operate the pump at its rated power for a longer duration to get high operating efficiency water yield efficiency. This provides good irrigation coverage area under pressured as well as conventional flood irrigation method. This paper presents an assessment of one of the most preferred solar irrigation pumps in India, i.e., the 3 hp solar pump operated by a 3.0 kWp fixed solar array. Study further showed that the rated power operation of this system persists only for few hours compared to the available sunshine hours on a day, and for the rated power operation the irradiance should be in the neighbourhood of 0.7 kW/m2. Hence, the current pattern of array sizing is supposed to be inappropriate.
References
Agriculture Census. 2015-16. All India report on number and area of operational holdings. Agriculture census division department of agriculture, co-operation & farmers welfare ministry of agriculture & farmers welfare government of India.
Fleckenstein J E. 2016.Three-phase electrical power. CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group, New York ISBN 13: 978-1-4987-3777-7.
Kalamkar S S, Swain M and Bhaiya S R. 2015. Impact Evaluation of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) in Gujarat. Agro-Economic Research Centre, Sardar Patel University and Agricultural Development & Rural Transformation Centre, Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore.
MIC (Minor Irrigation Census). 2018. 6th Census of Minor Irrigation Scheme. Department of Water Resources, Government of India, New Delhi.
MoEFCC (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change). 2022. India’s long-term low-carbon development strategy. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India.
MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy). 2019. Specification for solar photovoltaic water pumping systems, Govt of India, New Delhi.
Obafemi O, Olatunji, Paul A, Adedeji, Nkosinathi Madushele, Zelda Z R, Nickey Janse van Rensburg. 2022. Hybrid standalone microgrid for agricultural last-mile: A techno-economic analysis. Energy Reports 8:980-990.
Philippe C. 2014.Groundwater Law in India: Towards a Framework Ensuring Equitable Access and Aquifer Protection. Journal of Environmental Law 26(1):55–81 https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/eqt031
Rahman A and Singh A K. 2014. A simple low-cost water sprinkling nozzle for field crop irrigation. Current Science 107(1): 22-25.
Ramachandra T V, Jain R, Krishnadas G. 2011. Hotspots of solar potential in India. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 15(6): 3178-3186.
Ray S and Pullabhotla H K. 2023. The changing impact of rural electrification on Indian agriculture. Nat Commun 14: 6780. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42533-7
Yashodha Y, Sanjay A and Mukherji A. 2021. Solar irrigation in India: a situation analysis report. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI), 29. doi: https://doi.org/10.5337/2021.217
Zekry A, Shaker A and Salem M. 2018. Solar Cells and Arrays: Principles, Analysis, and Design. Advances in Renewable Energies and Power Technologies 1:3-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-812959-3.00001-0
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 ATIQUR RAHMAN, ERIK SCHMIDT, MICHAEL SCOBIE, SANTOSH S MALI, AJAY KUMAR, ANUJ KUMAR, ASHUTOSH UPADHYAYA, B P BHATT
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Publisher and Authors