Utilization of Solar Energy for Water Pumping in Agriculture

Abstract

Agriculture is the core of life and a major source of income in almost every nation. For a higher agricultural yield, a continuous supply of water for livestock and crops is a necessity. In many farming enterprises, the main source of water for their activities is natural rainfall. However, natural rainfall is highly seasonal dependent, hence, not reliable. This paper presents an automated irrigation phenomenon where solar energy is harnessed as a source of power to an automated water pumping system. The proposed design consist of two main segments; The pumping segment and the irrigation segment. The pumping segment uses two monocrystalline solar panels and an MPPT charge controller with an off-grid inverter to produce electricity stored in a 26.75 Ah deep cycle battery. In the irrigation segment, a 0.65 hp three-phase induction motor was used to power a vertical turbine pump. The irrigation rate for this design is 15 gallons per minute and is controlled by an ATmega328p microcontroller.