These studies investigate experimentally the performance of photovoltaic system for operating the pump coupled by dc-motor. The photovoltaic panel with total area 1.9848 m2 consists of three modules of 80 WP each. The small centrifugal pump is operated to lift water 1m, 2m, 3m, 4m heads and gives the amount of water pumped over the whole day from 0800 to 1700 h are 8294, 7296, 5661, 3925 L/d respectively. The hourly global solar radiation during the day is an average of 506 W/m2. This study is also presented the I-V characteristics of the panel at global radiations 300, 500, 700, 900 W/m2 matched with the operation of the pump at the above lifting heads

Alfian

Halim

Himran, S

Nurjanah

Hasanuddin University Repository

FTEC2011-The 7th International Conference on Fluid and Thermal Energy Conversion, Zhengzhou, China 
September 24-27, 2011  
 
 
 
 
The Performance of Photovoltaic System 
for Pumping Water at Various Lifting Heads 
 
S. Himran, Alfian, Halim, Nurjanah  
 
Universitas Hasanuddin, Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan Km 10,  
Makassar 90245, INDONESIA 
Phone: +062 0411 588400, Fax: +062 0411 588400 
E-mail: syukri_h@yahoo.com 
 
ABSTRACT 
These studies investigate experimentally the performance of photovoltaic system for operating 
the pump coupled by dc-motor.   The photovoltaic panel with total area 1.9848 m
2 
consists of 
three modules of 80 WP each. The small centrifugal pump is operated to lift water  1m, 2m, 
3m, 4m heads and gives the amount of water pumped over the whole day from 0800 to 1700 h 
are 8294, 7296, 5661, 3925 L/d respectively. The hourly global solar radiation during the day 
is an average of 506 W/m
2
.  This study is also presented the I-V characteristics of the panel at 
global radiations 300, 500, 700, 900 W/m
2
 matched with the operation of the pump at the 
above lifting heads.  
Keywords: photovoltaic, dc- motor-pump, I-V characteristics 
 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Photovoltaic is the most way to convert directly solar energy into dc-electricity. The 
devices used in photovoltaic conversion are called solar cells.  The solar cells have no moving 
part, environmental friendly, require little maintenance, and work quiet satisfactorily with 
beam or diffuse radiation.  As a result, it is possible that in the future they may become one of 
the important sources of power for providing small amounts of electrical energy for localized 
use, particularly in remote locations.   
Solar cells are made by bonding together p-type and n-type semiconductors (Fig. 1). When 
a solar cell is exposed to light, electron-hole pairs are generated in proportion to the intensity of 
the light. The negatively charged electrons move to the n-type semiconductor while the 
positively charged holes move to the p-type semiconductor. They collect at both electrodes to 
form a potential. When the two electrodes are connected by a wire, current flows   and the 
electric power thus generated can be transferred to an outside application.  
 
 
 
 
FTEC2011-The 7th International Conference on Fluid and Thermal Energy Conversion, Zhengzhou, China 
September 24-27, 2011  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2. SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF THE INSTALLATION 
The purpose of this paper is to present and to evaluate measurement of a solar cells panel 
which consists of three modules with capacity 80 Wp each for pumping water. The total area of 
the panel is 1.9848 m
2
.  The schematic of the installation is as shown in Fig. 2. The global 
radiation is measured by pyranometer in April 14
th 
- 17
th
 from 0800 to 1700 h. The panel is 
used to run the dc-motor-pump for water lifting heads: 1 m, 2 m, 3 m, and 4 m. The dc-current 
and voltage of the panel output and of motor input   are measured by multimeter. The flow 
rates of the pump for different lifting heads over a day are measured by glass meter and 
stopwatch.  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 1. Power generated by solar cells 
Current-collector 
Glass substrate 
n-type semiconductor 
p-type semiconductor 
Negative electrode 
Positive electrode 
Load 
Light 
      Electrons 
      Positively charged holes 
        
Digital 
pyranometer 
DC-Motor pump 
Multimeter 
Solar cell panel 
Solar radiations 
H 
Figure 2 Schematic of Solar cell panel for water pumping  
FTEC2011-The 7th International Conference on Fluid and Thermal Energy Conversion, Zhengzhou, China 
September 24-27, 2011  
 
 
 
 
3. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 
The experiments have been carried out at Renewable Energy Laboratory, Hasanuddin 
University over a day from 0800 to 1700.  The solar cells panel area Ap = 1.9848 m
2
, inclined 
15
o
 and facing north. Based on reference [1], the incident angle  is the angle between the 
incident beam of flux Ibn and the normal to panel can be related as equation below: 
cos = sin sin(+) + cos cos cos(+) 
Declination angle:   
The day of the year n = 104, 105, 106 and 107 for dated from April 14
th
 to 17
th
.  
Latitude angle   =  5.1o LS 
Slope of panel  =  15o 
Hour angle  = (12  LAT) × 15o. LAT is local apparent time and be counted from 0800 to 
1700 h. 
Then normal global radiation reaching the panel is: 
Ig = Ibn cos  + Id  
Solar beam and diffuse radiation Ibn and Id  can be taken as 85% and 15%  from measured 
global radiation Ig.meas  in clear sky.  
The variations of actual global radiation incident normally on the panel and the pumping flow 
rates for different lifting heads over a day are shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4 respectively. The 
two figure show that the variation of the water discharges by the pump over a day indicates a 
strong dependence in radiation incident on the solar panel.  Figure 4 shows the higher lifting 
heads the lower discharges and thus agrees with the H-Q centrifugal-pump characteristics. 
Figure 5 shows the variations of panel efficiencies over a day. It indicates that the efficiencies 
decrease with increase in the working temperature. In this condition, the open circuit voltage 
decreases more sharply than the short circuit current [2,3]  
It is also can be drawn the I-V characteristics of the panel matched with the operations of the 
pump at different lifting heads as shown in Figure 6. This figure is based on data on Table 3.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
N
o
rm
al
 in
ci
d
en
t r
ad
ia
ti
o
n
 (W
/m
2 )
Time  (h)
Figure 3 Variation of global radiation incident normally on
the panel over a day
Ig_1m
Ig_2m
Ig_3m
Ig_4m
FTEC2011-The 7th International Conference on Fluid and Thermal Energy Conversion, Zhengzhou, China 
September 24-27, 2011  
 
 
 
 
 
The figure shows that lifting head 1m can be operated at solar radiation 300 to 900 W/m
2
, 2 m 
and 3m for solar radiation 500 to 900 W/m
2
, 4 m for solar radiation 700 and 900 W/m
2
. On the 
contrary solar radiation 700 and 900 W/m
2
 can operate dc-motor pump for 1 to 4 m lifting 
head, 500 W/m
2
 for 1 to 3 m, and 300 W/m
2 
for 1 m only. It can be conclude that pump needs 
more energy and thus solar radiation to overcome the higher lifting head.  
 
 
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Fl
o
w
 r
at
e 
 (
m
L/
s)
Time  (h)
Figure 4 Variations of pumping flow rate over a day at various head
q_1 m
q_2m
q_3 m
q_4 m
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Ef
fi
ci
en
ci
es
 (%
)
Time (h)
Figure 5 Variations of panel efficiencies over a day
ηph1 %
ηph2 %
ηph3 %
ηph4 %
FTEC2011-The 7th International Conference on Fluid and Thermal Energy Conversion, Zhengzhou, China 
September 24-27, 2011  
 
 
 
 
 
Table 3 shows, the more solar radiation (Ig) then the more energy input to dc-motor pump (IV), 
and the more lifting head can be produced. 
A good idea is to calculate amount water pumped, energies consumed by the dc-motor pump 
from the panel and energies produced by the dc-motor pump in water over the whole day. 
Amount water pumped:   [L] 
Energy received by the panel: Epanel =  [W-h] 
Energy consumed by the dc-motor pump: Emotor =  [W-h] 
Energy produced by the dc-motor pump in water: Ewater =  [w-h] 
Efficiency of the system:   [%] 
Efficiency of the pump:   [%] 
 
Based the data on Table 2 we calculated the above energies and efficiencies, and  the results 
are given on Tabel 1. 
      
 
 
 
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
C
u
rr
en
t 
(A
)
Voltage (V)
Ig = 700 (W/m2)
Ig = 900 (W/m2)
Figure 6  I-V Characteristic of the panel at different lg and pumping head 
Ig = 300 (W/m2)
Ig = 500 (W/m2)
FTEC2011-The 7th International Conference on Fluid and Thermal Energy Conversion, Zhengzhou, China 
September 24-27, 2011  
 
 
 
 
Table 1 The energies and efficiencies of the solar cell panel system  
for water pumping at various lifting heads 
Item 
Pumping head 
H = 1 m H = 2 m H = 3 m H = 4 m 
Ig_meas.av 
[W/m2] 
513.71 524.39 493.12 492.08 
Ig_norm.av 
[W/m2] 
423.37 425.51 405.85 404.72 
Epanel [kW-h) 14.29 14.36 13.69 13.66 
Q [L] 8294 7296 5661 3925 
Emotor[W-h) 810.79 1096.12 1181.47 1319.94 
Ewater[W-h) 22.60 39.76 46.28 61.70 
system [%] 0.16 0.28 0.34 0.45 
pump[%] 2.79 3.63 3.92 4.68 
 
It can be seen from the Table 1 that at nearly the same energies received by the panel at 
different lifting heads, will produce the increase in Emotor, Ewater , ηsystem, and ηpump, but the 
decrease in water pumped Q. The lower efficiencies of the system and dc-motor pump are due 
to improper construction of the motor-pump, since it is self manufactured, and the decrease of 
Q because of the restriction of H-Q centrifugal-pump characteristics.  
The data given above indicate that increase of the lifting heads are followed by the increase of 
the efficiencies, these conditions will be further explored since the centrifugal pump 
characteristic shows the further increase of  head will  lower  the efficiency.  This will be done 
by using standard dc-motor pump with the capacity > 100 W and operated at lifting heads 
higher than 4 m.   
 
4. CONCLUSION 
From the studies one can conclude: 
1. The variation of water discharge by the pump over a day indicates a strong dependence in 
radiation incident on the solar panel.   
2. The I-V characteristics of the panel matched with the operations of the pump at different 
lifting heads show there are interdependent between solar radiations and lifting head of the 
pump. The higher the radiation the higher the pump to produce the lifting head. At radiation 
300 W/m
2
, the pump can only be operated for 1 m lifting head.  
 
REFERENCE 
[1]. Sukatme, S. P., Nayak J. K., 2008, Solar Energy, Principles of Thermal Collection and Storage,   
       3
rd
 Ed. Tata McGraw Hill Education Private Limited, New Delhi, pp. 313-331 
[2]. Malik, A.Q., et. al., 2010, Influence on the Performance of Photovoltaic Polycrystalline Sillicon 
Module in the Bruneian Climate, AJSTD, 26 Issue 2, pp61-72  
[3]. Hamrouni, N., et. al., 2008, Solar Radiation and Ambient Temperature Effects on the Performance 
of a PV Pumping System, Revue des Energies Renouvelables Vol 11 No. I, pp. 95-106  
[4]. Himran, S., et.al., 2010, The Comparison between The Effect of Using Two Plane Mirror 
Concentrators and that without Mirrors on The Flat  Plate Collector, ICCHT 2010, Bandung, 
Indonesia, paper no. 80 
FTEC2011-The 7th International Conference on Fluid and Thermal Energy Conversion, Zhengzhou, China 
September 24-27, 2011  
 
 
 
 
[5]. Kreith, F.,  Kreider, J.  F., 1978, Principles of Solar Engineering, McGraw-Hill, pp. 559-573 
[6]. Culp, A.W., 1979, Principles of Energy Conversion, McGrawHill Kogakusha, Ltd, pp. 400-408 
 
 
FTEC2011-The 7th International Conference on Fluid and Thermal Energy Conversion, Zhengzhou, China 
September 24-27, 2011  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
Ig [W/m
2
] ISC [A] VOC [V] 
H = 1m H = 2m H = 3m H = 4m 
I [A] V [V] IV [W] I [A] V [V] IV [W] I [A] V [V] IV [W] I [A] V [V] IV [W] 
300 4.47 17.90 4.46 9.15 40.81 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 
500 7.46 18.10 4.75 16.65 79.09 6.31 15.70 99.07 7.34 13.57 99.60 0 0 0 
700 10.45 18.37 4.78 17.13 81.88 6.35 16.59 105.35 7.42 16.03 118.94 8.50 15.30 130.05 
900 13.42 18.54 4.81 17.35 83.45 6.44 16.95 109.16 7.57 16.64 125.96 8.60 16.22 139.49 
 
Time 
Ig_meas.[Wm
2
] Ig_norm.[W/m
2
] I [A] V [V] q [mL/s] 
H=1m H=2m H=3m H=4m H=1m H=2m H=3m H=4m H=1m H=2m H=3m H=4m H=1m H=2m H=3m H=4m H=1m H=2m H=3m H=4m 
0800 683 826.67 814 830 401.18 485.33 477.90 513.77 4.73 6.28 7.21 8.28 17.13 16.9 16.44 15.94 180.75 183.33 144.25 100.75 
0900 811 873.33 891 881 614.83 662.09 675.74 693.17 4.80 6.38 7.25 8.46 17.44 17.03 16.70 16.13 210.75 193.33 170.00 112.50 
1000 982 926.00 919 920 873.34 823.54 817.31 818.20 4.84 6.49 7.26 8.60 17.76 17.18 16.79 16.27 258.25 210.00 175.75 114.25 
1100 999 941.00 943 941 971.20 914.50 916.45 914.83 4.85 6.52 7.28 8.67 17.79 17.22 16.87 16.35 265.00 220.00 182.5 121.75 
1200 1107 994.33 968 952 1106.98 994.31 967.65 952.32 4.88 6.63 7.29 8.71 17.99 17.37 16.95 16.39 290.75 240.00 187.5 125.75 
1300 941 966.00 985 983 914.50 938.80 957.59 955.00 4.83 6.57 7.30 8.81 17.68 17.29 17.01 16.50 246.75 230.00 191.75 135.00 
1400 927 930.33 910 907 824.72 827.39 809.31 806.34 4.82 6.50 7.26 8.55 17.66 17.19 16.76 16.22 242.5 210.00 175.75 120.00 
1500 844 849.00 766 778 665.12 643.64 580.47 589.82 4.80 6.33 7.19 8.10 17.50 16.96 16.29 15.76 223.25 190.00 134.25 100.00 
1600 761 819.00 651 650 446.78 480.83 382.40 381.81 4.40 6.26 6.94 7.60 16.22 16.88 15.74 15.01 203.00 180.00 115.00 86.75 
1700 645 789.00 536 523 378.68 463.22 314.68 307.05 4.05 6.20 6.68 7.10 14.93 16.79 15.19 14.25 182.75 170.00 95.75 73.50 
Table 2  Measuring data in solar panel system on various pumping heads over a day 
Table 3 Operation data of current and voltage at various solar radiation 


The Performance of Photovoltaic System for Pumping Water at Various Lifting Heads

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The Performance of Photovoltaic System for Pumping Water at Various Lifting Heads

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