Direct coupling of photovoltaic power source to water pumping system

Direct coupling between a photovoltaic (PV) solar panel and a water pumping system driven by a permanent magnet dc motor is analyzed theoretically. The analysis is based on the simulated performance of a pumping system which consists of a Jacuzzi general purpose pump and a permanent magnet dc motor with selected characteristics. Hourly insolation data obtained from typical meteorological year SOLMET data are used in the simulation. A comparison between systems with and without a PV peak-power point tracker shows that a PV pumping system with peak-power tracker is more desirable because of its higher efficiency.