Optimization of a photovoltaic powered water pumping system

With the degradation of the environment and the decline of fossil sources announced in recent years, the use of renewable energy is experiencing strong growth. Photovoltaic electricity is the promising technologies for the applications in isolated sites not served by the power grid. However, the productivity of a PV array depends mainly on weather conditions (irradiation and temperature). In this paper, we present the optimization of a photovoltaic pumping system. Depending on the operating conditions, the maximum power delivered by the PVG is not located in the same operating point. We resort of techniques MPPT to track the maximum power point of the PV array for any temperature and solar irradiation level at all times. For that, Perturb and Observe (P&O) method and incremental conductance method are realized. Further, meaningful comparison has been made between these two methods. The proposed system consists of a stand-alone PV system, DC/DC Boost converter associated with an algorithm allowing maximum power point tracking MPPT and a DC motor coupling with a centrifugal pump. The model is integrated by a simulation program MATLAB/Simulink.