Experimental Evaluation of Photovoltaic-Battery-Supercapacitor Water Pumping System and Its Potential Under Variable Weather Conditions
Abstract
Batteries have been used frequently by researchers to eliminate changes in solar water pumping systems, which can degrade battery life. Supercapacitors and battery energy storage technology complement one another. The supercapacitor has a high power density, while the battery has a high energy density. Integration of supercapacitor may enhance the performance of the PV/battery system. As a result, in this work, a PV/Battery/Supercapacitor fed water pumping is tested experimentally for providing uninterrupted power to a solar photovoltaic pump under diverse weather circumstances (sunny, partially cloudy, and cloudy days) using a centrifugal pump. The experiment uses a 40Wp solar module to power a 12V, 14.4 W centrifugal pump, as well as a 12V, 9Ahr battery and a 210F, 12V supercapacitor bank. The share of current between battery and supercapacitor is demonstrated on a partly cloudy day. The effect of the radiation fluctuation on flowrate and battery/supercapacitor charging-discharging characteristics are investigated. This system is effective in operation on partially cloudy days, hence improving the performance of the water pumping system performance. This water pumping system boosts the efficiency of PV systems in agricultural applications.