Design And Modeling Of Large-Scale Solar Powered Water Pumping Smart Irrigation System

Photovoltaic(PV)technology has rapidly improved the agricultural irrigation sector,mainly in remote and desert regions;the Rwandan government is targeting a transition from developing to middle-income countries based on agricultural production.Above 80%of Rwandese rely on farming and agriculture sector.Therefore,this research project mainly focuses on the modeling of large-scale solar-powered irrigation technology in the context of arid climate in eastern Rwanda.The long-term monthly average daily solar global irradiance is between 4.8kwh/m~2/day in May and 5.8kwh/m~2/day in July.Therefore,the daily average solar irradiance of the site in the case study was measured to be 5.2kwh/m~2/day,which shows the good development potential of solar energy in smart irrigation.MATLAB/Simulink has been used to simulate using incremental conductance based on the MPPT method so that the panel voltage and battery should match in the PWM system.The outcome of the research shows that the designed scheme can deliver 100kW of electricity to the solar water pump,and intelligently irrigate a cornfield with a water volume of 540m3 for 4 hours a day,which is both efficient and economical.The adoption of newly designed solar powered pumping system is an important means of sustainable development for rural communities in remote arid regions.