Renewable energy and sustainable developments in Egypt: photovoltaic water pumping in remote areas

doi:10.1016/S0306-2619(02)00140-X

Applied Energy

Volume 74, Issues 1–2, January–February 2003, Pages 141-147

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0306-2619(02)00140-X Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper considers the economics of using photovoltaic (PV) technology for developing remote areas. “East Owienat” in Upper Egypt is the chosen region: there, the feasibility of using PV systems for the pumping of ground water in comparison with using diesel units, taking into consideration the different parameters affecting the costs and the present value of both systems, is considered. The study proved that PV-battery systems can be used efficiently for water pumping at East Owienat: the cost of the water unit pumped by PV systems is much less than that pumped using diesel systems, and the water cost is more sensitive to PV cells’ prices than their life-time periods.

Introduction

Egypt is endowed with a significant amount of renewable energy resources. Some of these, such as solar and wind, have been used commercially while the use of the other resources is still in the research-and-development phase. This paper presents the results of an economic analysis for using Photovoltaic (PV) pumping systems to replace diesel systems used for irrigation at a specific remote area in the South-Western part of Egypt. The water cost indicator is used for comparison in three cases based on different prices of PV systems and for three different life times.

Section snippets

Case study

The case study considers a cultivated area in the East Owienat region, Egypt. Two irrigation systems; sprinkling and dripping are used. The hydraulic and electric energy needs to pump the water demands from the available underground water reservoir, are calculated taking into consideration the daily water demands suitable for the crop water requirements, the wells’ data and the meteorological data of the site. Based on the daily solar insolation and the daily energy efficiency, the size of the

Site characteristics

The selected area for the study (East Owienat) is located at the west southern part of Egypt, it is between 22° and 24° latitude—north and 27° and 29° longitude—east. The average annual temperature is 25 °C. This area is one of the highest solar radiation levels in Egypt: it has an annual average of global solar radiation between 6 and 7 kWh/m²/day and the actual sunshine duration is about 11 h/day. The area has an open aquifer and high quality ground water, which is pumped for irrigation. Many

Economic analysis

The cost of one cubic metre of the pumped water for each of the two irrigation systems is calculated for three lifetime periods (20, 25, 30 years) and three water-heads (H=40, 80, 120 m) for a PV-battery stand alone system and a diesel system using the total life-cycle cost procedure [1], [3], with the following assumptions and equations:

P_hydraulic=(V*H)/367 $P_{electric} =P_{hydraulic} /η_{pump motor}$ where:

V	is the water volume in m³
H	is the water head in m
η_{pump motor}	is the pump-motor's set efficiency=35%

Results

For three different prices of PV cells (4.5, 3, 2 USD/Wp), and using 0.5% of this amount as a maintenance cost, the annual levelized costs were calculated for the two irrigation systems:

Conclusions

•
PV-battery systems can be used efficiently for water pumping in the East Owienat area.
•
The cost of the water unit pumped by PV systems is much less than that pumped using diesel systems.
•
The water cost is more sensitive to the PV cell's prices than the life-time periods.

References (3)

R. Barlow et al.
Solar pumping, an introduction and update on the technology, performance, costs, and economics
(1993)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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