Solar Powered Irrigation Pumps
About the Practice
The problem that my project will handle will be the optimum utilisation of the land that is given to the farmer to have multiple crops on it and how the irrigation requirements of the crops will be met. Also as an electrical engineer,the main task will be the performance optimization of the induction motor for getting the optimum discharge at a given solar insolation. Basically, from the point of view of optimizing the power requirement of the motor we have to take into account the variations in the system head to obtain optimum relationship for motor control. Also,to incorporate a MPPT control to adjust the duty cycle of a boost converter so that impedance matching is achieved and maximum power is extracted for any insolation and temperature condition. Incorporation of all the losses relating to evapotranspiration, seepage, percolation have to be taken into consideration while calculating the required water and power input to the motor. Also losses relating to induction motor and pump such as mechanical transmission, efficiency of pump, suction and delivery pipe efficiency will have to be considered.
Detail:
Agriculture sector is the most important sector of our Indian economy and we owe the credits to the farmers who make it possible for us to eat the food. If we closely look at the problem of farmers and also the crisis that the world is facing, we will find a number of issues. The issue on which I am working is the irrigation pumps. Solar energy in India is abundant and there is no denying the fact that the future is of solar. So why not, focus on solar powered irrigation pumps. Like this, we can help the farmer who is always worried whether he will get the supply from the grid to meet the demands because agricultural load is unmmetered and is the first one to cut off when it comes to load shedding. Farmers can share the irrigation water that they are getting from making use of solar energy and with the invention of smart grids, he can give the power back to the grid, if surplus and can make money. In this way, he doesn't have to depend on wealthy farmers to give him water supply for irrigation who may even exploit him. Another thing that a farmer can do is, he can have a storage tank built where he can collect water and can use it for irrigation or for household works when solar energy is not abundant (similar to rain water harvesting technique) Also, drip irrigation and sprinkler systems can be used for which government provides subsidy and can help in water conservation as well. The idea is to find the different crops that India produces and what is the water requirement, how we can increase efficiency by having multiple crops on one land and also to optimally control the submersible pump and the induction motor to maintain the pressure of water according to the given head at which water is available by making use of power electronics converters.
About the Innovator
Address: Aibaan Hostel, Room Number-317, IIT Gandhinagar, Palaj Campus, Gandhinagar
City: Gandhinagar
State: Gujarat
PIN Code 382355
Email: suruchi.sharma@iitgn.ac.in
Contact No: 7599112262.0
Practice Details
Problem Scale: Worldwide
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