Modeling and Implementation of a PV-powered DC Water Pump System for Irrigation in Duhok City

The agriculture sector nowadays relies mostly on conventional energy sources and traditional irrigation ways. Considering some factors such as high costs of fossil fuels and providing new power lines, especially to remote locations and where grid electricity is either inaccessible or expensive, a solar PV powered irrigation system can be a practical choice for irrigating crop fields. In this paper, a PV-powered dc water pump system design for irrigation is presented. A comprehensive comparison between Direct Current (DC) and an Alternative Current (AC) motors powered by PV is carried out in terms of power, current, water discharge and cost. Dominant factors of the system such as the effect of solar radiation on motor power, current, and water discharge are considered in this study. The optimum tilt angle for Duhok city is considered to perform this study. The specifications of PV, DC and AC motors are tested in Matlab Simulink to show the performance of the system components. The results show that DC motor is preferred over AC in term of system complexity, cost and power consumption. In contrast, water discharge of AC pump is slightly higher than the DC pump for the same time. However, overall results demonstrate the superiority of DC motor over AC.