Performance of Low Capacity Solar Pump under Tracked and Fixed Mechanism of Solar Array in Eastern Region of India

ATIQUR RAHMAN; PK SUNDARAM; BIKAS SARAKAR; PAWAN JEET; ANIL SINGH; ASHUTOSH UPADHYAYA

ATIQUR RAHMAN Division of Land & Water Management, ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna, Bihar, India
PK SUNDARAM Division of Land & Water Management, ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna, Bihar, India
BIKAS SARAKAR Division of Land & Water Management, ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna, Bihar, India
PAWAN JEET Division of Land & Water Management, ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna, Bihar, India
ANIL SINGH Division of Land & Water Management, ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna, Bihar, India
ASHUTOSH UPADHYAYA Division of Land & Water Management, ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna, Bihar, India

Keywords: : Irrigation, tracked array, fixed array, solar radiation, groundwater

Abstract

Under the policy frameworks and financing schemes for solar energy use in agriculture many Indian states are providing subsidies on small capacity solar pumps even upto 90% for the use of smallholders’ irrigation. One of most the popular and subsidised solar pump is of 3.0 HP solar submersible pump, operated by 3.0 kWp solar array. This paper presents the performance of 3.0 HP solar pump with tracking and fixed array evaluated under the prevailing solar global radiation of 3.4-6.4 kWh/m²/day, solar irradiance of 0-930 W/m² and the groundwater depth regime 10 ±4m of Eastern region of India. The results showed that the 3 times manually tracked array yielded 19-23 percent more water compared to fixed array. The mean monthly daily groundwater yield with 3 times manually tracked array was found in range of 80-155 m³/day