SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC ELECTRICITY FOR AGRICULTURAL IRRIGATION

The main purpose of irrigation applications is to provide the water required by the plant in a timely and sufficient amount, with minimum energy and operating costs. The methods used for water pumping use various power sources such as human and animal power, wind, sun and fossil fuels. The photovoltaic (PV) technology becomes very popular with development of material science among the indispensable of solar energy in recent years. The PV systems are designed specifically for agricultural irrigation where electricity can not be delivered. In this book, design principles of solar powered drip irrigation system are presented. The power of the motor-pump unit was calculated depends on the water flow required to meet the water consumption of the olive trees determined by considering the climate and precipitation data of Adana and the head losses determined by considering the pipes and auxiliary pipe elements in the drip irrigation system.