Standalone PV water pumping system for Durum Wheat irrigation in Ghardaia region: Technique and economic study

Abstract

The Ghardaia region is one of the large southern parts of Algeria which has great solar potential and huge groundwater that can be exploited in agriculture, considered as one of the main sector in the local development. The annual production of Durum Wheat has reached about a half million quantal in the last years which attracted the care of the sector. However, the supply with water is considered as the main problem, due to the far of the majority of the farms from the main grid. In other hand the supply with fuel is very exhaustive for the using diesel pumps due to the remote of the fuel stations. In this work, an attempt of technoeconomic study of photovoltaic water pumping system (PVWPS) has been adopted to see the feasibility level in integrating this new system in irrigation. Accordingly, a technical study has been conducted to determine the optimal power needed by dimensioning examination and then making economic evaluations to estimate the total cost of the investment. In other hand, experimental tests were carried out both in photovoltaic laboratory, technically, whereas an economic test was carried out on sample of a Durum wheat area production, in one farm of Hassi Lefhel, Ghardaia, Therefore, a techno-economic comparison between the water supply by electricity and a PV water pumping system has been done and the result show that the two investments can be linked after three years, which confirms the medium investment of the PVWPS.