Memorias de investigación
Research Publications in journals:
Development and test of solutions to enlarge the power of PV irrigation and application to a 140 kW PV-Diesel representative case
Year:2018
Research Areas
  • Solar energy,
  • Photovoltaic generation
Information
Abstract
The current state of the art of photovoltaic (PV) irrigation systems is limited to PV peak powers below 40 kWp, which does not cover the irrigation needs of farmers, co-operatives, irrigator communities, and agro-industries. This limitation of power is due to two main technical barriers: The quick intermittence of PV power due to the passing of clouds, and the maladjustment between PV production and water needs. This paper presents new solutions that have been developed to overcome these barriers and their application to the design and performance of a 140 kWp hybrid PV-diesel system for the drip irrigation of 195 ha of olive trees in Alter do Chão, Portugal. The performance of the solutions was analysed during two years of real operation. As the performance of the PV system is not only affected by intrinsic-to-design characteristics, but also by circumstances external to the system, new performance indices were developed. As an example, the percentage of use of PV electricity, PVSH, was 78% and 82% in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and the performance ratio of the PV part, PRPV, was 0.79 and 0.80. The economic feasibility was also analysed based on experimental data, resulting in savings in the levelized cost of electricity of 61%.
International
Si
JCR
Si
Title
Energies
ISBN
1996-1073
Impact factor JCR
2,676
Impact info
Datos JCR del año 2017
Volume
11
10.3390/en11123538
Journal number
12
From page
3538-1
To page
3538-24
Month
SIN MES
Ranking
Participants
Research Group, Departaments and Institutes related
  • Creador: Grupo de Investigación: Sistemas Fotovoltaicos
  • Centro o Instituto I+D+i: Instituto de Energía Solar
  • Departamento: Ingeniería Telemática y Electrónica