Some Studies on Performance Analysis of Two Different
Laboratory Scale Solar Photovoltaic Water Pumping in
Irrigation Systems
Sujoy Ranjan Nath
Post Graduate Student, School of Energy Studies,
Jadavpur University, Kolkata – 700032.
West Bengal, India.
sujoyranjannath@gmail.com
Abstract - By considering the limitation of the conventional
energy resources, renewable energy plays an important role
today. The agriculture procedure is totally dependent on the
good irrigation process and the irrigation process is on the
energy sources. Solar photovoltaic pumping can provide the
necessary alternative way. With the advancement of the
technology, so many pumps are available in the market which
can be used for solar pumping operation. In this study, two
different types of pumps are taken for experimental purposes.
One pump is diaphragm type reciprocating pump and another
one is centrifugal pump. The experiment is carried out for four
months. Based on the result, different characteristics are
represented for three different pump discharge pressure. The
main objective of this study is to make the comparison of
different parameters like efficiency, minimum intensity required
for pumping operation etc for two pumps. Based on this result,
finally to see which pump is suitable for photovoltaic operation
and at which condition.
To best of our Knowledge this is the first time such type of
comparative work on laboratory scale solar photo voltaic (SPV)
water pumping systems for irrigation purpose was reported.
Index Terms - SPV water pump, irrigation system, diaphragm
type reciprocating pump, centrifugal pump etc.
I. INTRODUCTION
Irrigation at reasonable prices is one of the biggest
challenges facing the country today. Water pumping
worldwide is generally dependent on conventional electricity
or diesel generated electricity. The resources of the
conventional electricity in earth are limited. The use of the
diesel based water pumping is expensive and creates noise and
air pollution. The operating and maintenance cost and
replacement of the diesel pump is also comparatively high.
There is also another problem arises in the rural area for using
conventional electricity for pumping operation. The shortage
of the grid electricity occurs in rural and remote areas. During
the peak power demands, sometimes it is not possible to
supply the grid electricity. Only around 45% of net sown area
in India is under irrigation cover [1]. As of March 2015, India
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Ratan Mandal
Faculty, School of Energy Studies,
Jadavpur University, Kolkata – 700032.
West Bengal, India.
ratan_mandal99@yahoo.co.in
had around 19 million agriculture connections for irrigation
through electric pumps, which reportedly consumed 166
billion units of power (~22% of total sales) in 2013-14 [2]. On
the other hand, power for agriculture connections is heavily
subsidized, leading to poor returns for utilities and wasteful
consumption. Against this background, solar pumps have
emerged as an attractive alternative technology for irrigation.
They can serve as a cost effective mode of irrigation with low
maintenance requirements. The central government has set the
target of incentivising 100,000 solar pumps, while the state
governments of Maharashtra, Gujarat etc. are pursuing
individual targets of facilitating adoption of solar pumps. As
of August 2015, India has ~35,000 solar pumps, against a total
of ~28 million irrigation pump sets [1]. Keeping in view these
problems, solar photovoltaic system can provide alternative
way for the pumping operation. A PV pumping system is
analogous to other conventional pumping system; only the
difference is in power source which is solar energy. Normally,
PV pumping systems consist of a PV array, a motor, a pump
and water storage tank. Sometimes mounted on passive
trackers are used to follow the sun throughout the day for
increasing pumping time and water volume [3, 4].
Agriculture is largely dependent on rains in developing
country. In summer, agriculture is adversely affected due to
the non-availability of water. It should be noticed that in
summer maximum solar radiation is available. Due to the high
radiation, solar PV system can provides more water pumping
operation in summer. There is a wide scope to utilize PV
pumping systems for water supplies in rural, urban, industry
etc.
In this study, two different types of pumps (centrifugal and
reciprocating) are used for analysis purpose. The overall
objectives of this work are (a) to measure the solar radiation
and to observe how the flow and different parameter changes
with the radiation and time for two different kind of SPV
pumping system i.e. one for centrifugal pump and another for
reciprocating pump; (b) to check the variation of efficiency of
two pumping system and which system shows higher
efficiency; (c) to identify the problems associated with two
pumping system by using two different pump and (d) to
identify most suitable pumping system, whether centrifugal or
reciprocating pump for small scale application.
II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND METHODOLOGY
The experimental system for the present work is located
in Kolkata (22°34’10” N, 88°22’10”E). Here two systems
have been developed. One system is for Solenoid type
diaphragm pump, another system is for centrifugal pump.
Both systems consist of the following subsystems/component
(a) SPV array, (b) Water storage tank, (c) Flow meter, (d)
Pressure gauge, (e) Valves, etc.
In this system, there are two SPV array named as SPVA1
and SPVA2 (i.e. Solar Photovoltaic Array). SPVA1 consists
of two similar photovoltaic modules. They are made of poly-
crystalline silicon. This photovoltaic array is directly coupled
with a diaphragm type solenoid pump as shown in Fig.1.
SPVA2 consists of one photovoltaic module. It is also made
of polycrystalline silicon. The centrifugal pump is coupled
with the PV array through the voltage regulator made of IC
7812. Photographic images of diaphragm pump and
centrifugal pumps are shown in Fig.2 and Fig.3.
Fig.1 Experimental set up of SPVA1 with
Diaphragm type solenoid pump
Fig.2 Diaphragm pump
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Fig.3 Centrifugal pump
The solar radiation is measured by using solarimeter. A
simple circuit is developed to measure the load current (IL),
load voltage (VL), open circuit voltage (Voc), short circuit
current (IL) [5]. The solar radiation is measured in W/m2 by
the solarimeter. The load is dc motor which helps the pump to
circulate the water from tank. The load current and voltage for
different discharge pressure (D.P.) head is measured by the
multimeter. The pressure is changed by using discharge valve
and monitored by pressure gauge mounted over it. The flow
rate is measured by using flow meter at different head. The
radiation changes throughout the day, so for the almost whole
day the readings are taken to find the current and voltage at
different radiation. The applied discharge pressures (D.P.) are
0 kg/cm2, 0.1 kg/cm2, 0.2 kg/cm2. For every pressure the
corresponding discharge are recorded. The readings are taken
from 10.30 am to 4 pm. The readings are taken for 18 days in
a month. The readings are taken from January to April month.
At a constant intensity, the discharge, current and voltage are
recorded by changing the dynamic head.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
By taking the experimental data (from January, 2016 –
April, 2016), efficiency, flow rates are calculated. Now it
should be noticed that the centrifugal pump (connected to the
SPVA2) is a low head pump whereas diaphragm type
reciprocating pump is a high head pump. At first, the dynamic
heads for which the parameters of both pumps are increasing
order, are checked. For this reason, different values are taken
at constant radiation by varying the dynamic pressure. Now,
the performance parameter of both the systems are evaluated,
compared and represented in graphical manner. The following
Fig.4 and Fig.5 indicate the variation of system efficiency
with respect to varying discharge pressure head at two
different level of solar intensity (700 W/m2 and 800 W/m2). It
reveals that reciprocating pump system exhibits higher
efficiency (about 4.4% at 700 W/m2 and 3.7% at 800 W/m2) at
higher discharge pressure (about 1 kg/cm2) than the
centrifugal pump system. In other hand centrifugal pump
system shows its highest efficiency (about 2% at 700 W/m2
and 2.2% at 800 W/m2) at lower discharge pressure (about
0.15 Kg/cm2) whereas, Fig.6 and Fig.7 shows that the
variation of system efficiency with radiation at D.P - 0.1
Kg/cm2 and D.P - 0.2 Kg/cm2. From these two curves, it is
found that the efficiency is increasing for centrifugal pump
and decreasing for reciprocating pump with increasing solar
radiation to some extent. Therefore, it can be concluded that
for low head small scale application centrifugal pump will
give better result whereas for high head small scale
application reciprocating pump would be the best option.

Fig.7 Variation of system efficiency with radiation at D.P 0.2 Kg/cm2

The Head (H) – Discharge (Q) curves for both the pumping
system are presented in Fig.8 and Fig.9. These indicate that
Fig.4 Reciprocating pump (SPVA1) increase radiation will increase H & Q for both the systems
and the patterns are more or less same. These will help to find
out most efficient operating point knowing the system head
curve for individual pumps.

Fig.5 Centrifugal pump (SPVA2)

Fig.8 Reciprocating pump (SPVA1)

Fig.6 Variation of system efficiency with radiation at D.P 0.1 Kg/cm2

Fig.9 Centrifugal pump (SPVA2)

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 The following graph in Fig.10 shows the minimum
intensity required for operating both the pumps.
to the fact that the hydro power generated by the reciprocating
pump remains almost same at all radiation but at lower
radiation the input of the pump decreases. The reciprocating
pump can also tolerate the continuous fluctuation of the
radiation. For small scale high head application, reciprocating
pump shows good performance.

All these results are being presented here will help to find
out or selecting the SPV pumps best on requirement as well as
the availability of the system curves.
REFERENCES
[1] Report, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, 2014, Ministry of
Agriculture and Cooperation, Gov. of India (http://agricoop.nic.in/)
[2] Report, Planning Commission, 2014, Gov. of India
(http://planningcommission.nic.in/)
[3] Ratan Mandal, Rakesh Naskar, “A Comparative Study and Performance
Analysis of Two Similar Solar Photovoltaic Irrigation System; One with
SPV Panel Cleaning Mechanism and another One without Cleaning
Mechanism,” International Journal of Advanced Alternative Energy,
Environment and Ecology, Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 15-35, 2012.
[4] Robert Fostera, Alma Cotaa, “Solar water pumping advances and
comparative economics,” Energy Procedia, 57 (2014) 1431 – 1436.
[5] Ratan Mandal, Subhadeep Chakraborty, “Some Studies on Performance
Variation of A Laboratory Scale Solar Photovoltaic Pumping System on
Fig.10 D.P. vs. minimum radiation for pump operation the different Parameter; i.e. Module Surface Temperature; Solar
Radiation; Pump Discharge Pressure in Different Seasons,” International
Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT), Vol. 2 Issue 8,
pages 1660-1666, August – 2013.

The minimum radiation required for pumping operation is

same in discharge pressure (D.P) 0 kg/cm^2. But in increasing
the D.P, minimum operating solar radiation required becomes
high and high for reciprocating pump as compared with
centrifugal pump.
Another point should be noted that the centrifugal pump
requires constant supply source. It can hardly tolerate the
intensity fluctuation. Here we need a regulator circuit with the
solar PV cell, so that constant voltage is available to the pump.
It cannot be directly coupled with the PV cell.

IV. CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it is found that centrifugal
pump (SPVA2) exhibits large efficiency at low discharge
pressure. The minimum radiation required for the operation of
pump is also large for SPVA2 for high discharge pressure.
This occurs because at lower radiation the speed of centrifugal
pump is less than the required specific speed of pump. For the
large discharge pressure, the SPVA2 has better efficiency at
high radiation. The centrifugal pump can show better
performance and efficiency when the head problem does not
come into consideration. So, for agriculture where the surface
water layer hardly changes, its performance can be good as
compared to the reciprocating pump.

Now, reciprocating pump’s (SPVA1) operating period is

high. With the increase of discharge pressure, it can operate at
lower radiation as compared to the SPVA2. The efficiency of
the reciprocating pump is high at lower radiation. This is due

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