Performance characteristics of solar pump in the Bhubaneswar region of Odisha

Irrigation is a major key for sustainable agriculture. In era of improved agriculture, irrigation through pumps are practiced everywhere. Despite of diesel and electric operated pumps, solar pumps gathered a huge popularity for its low installing and maintenance cost. The location where electricity is not available solar photo voltaic pump is the best substitute. Solar PV pumps are designed to operate on DC power produced by solar panels. The current experiment was conducted for studying discharge characteristics of selected solar pump at different levels of solar radiation along with the rate of energy consumption at Bomikhal, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Different systems such as SPV water pumping system, SPV array, PV generator, D.C motor pump, A.C induction motor pump with suitable inverter were utilized for study purpose. The potential discharge of solar pump was found to be 2075.4 lph at an average temperature of 38 0c and voltage of 81.6 V.