Effects of Temperature and Solar Irradiation Variations on The Performances of Photovoltaic Pumping Systems

Abstract

Climate and solar radiation levels are two major environmental elements that affect the operation of photovoltaic (PV) pumping systems. Rising temperatures cause a decrease in PV modules' electrical efficiency because of the fall of fill factor and open-circuit voltage. They may also cause a decrease in motor efficiency because of the growing winding resistance losses. Besides, the increased photocurrent and power production of the PV array are caused by higher levels of solar irradiation, which makes the pump run at higher speeds or flow rates. To quantify these impacts and forecast system performance, precise modeling techniques and control laws are used such as MPPT, PWM and U/F in this paper. This paper presents solar performances and responses such as the flow of the pumped water, the PV power outputs, motor voltages, currents, speed and finally converter controls. However, although MPPT and PWM control laws improve the energy efficiency of the overall system, the simulation results show that the performance of the PV pumping system degrades when the temperature increases and the solar flux decreases, which will affect the autonomy of the PV system.