Performance deviation of pv water pumping system under different ambient factors

Abstract

The performance deviation of a PV/Water pumping system is inevitable due to the serious effect caused by major ambient factors. Those factors are mainly the partial shading condition (PSC) of the PV array, the angle of incidence (AOI) of the solar beam, the air mass (AM), and the dust. This paper develops an aggregated irradiance model that incorporates the effects of all the major ambient factors. This model is developed by estimating the hourly global irradiance on the tilted surface, then dividing it into its main components. After that the effect of each ambient factor is modeled in association to a particular component of the global irradiance. This paper also implements an improved variable step size maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm that is suitable for multiple maximum power points occurring during PSC. Thereafter, the modeling of a complete PV/water pumping system is built using MATLAB. The performance deviation is analyzed with sunshine hours for a given day and site, focusing on the water flow rate under separate and combined effect of the investigated ambient factors.