Optimization of a solar based water pumping system using a high step up inverter

Solar power is an attractive source of energy, free, abundant and not polluting the atmosphere. However, due to the low efficiency of current photovoltaic cells, conversion of sunlight into electrical power is very poor, and it is irradiance level, array temperature dependents, this efficiency further decreases if there is no impedance matching between photovoltaic panels output and the load to ensure that the maximum power transfer theorem is fulfilled. This paper describes operation of a water pumping system consisting of a Centrifugal pump coupled to a BLDC motor, accompanying a single stage high step up inverter fed by photovoltaic arrays. The designed inverter has got the capability of performing DC boost/buck, DC-AC inversion and fast Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT). Particular Swarm optimization Fuzzy logic based MPPT algorithm is used to track the Maximum Power Point (MPP) of the solar panel by providing dedicated gating signals to power switches. The designed water pumping system has been implemented and modelled in Matlab/Simulink; simulated results show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method in increasing pumping performances.