International Journal of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Vol.4, No.

2, April 2012

Application of Solar Powered Automatic Water Pumping

in Turkey
Mahir DURSUN and Semih OZDEN

characteristically [2]. In summer months obtained solar

AbstractIn this study, an automatic drip irrigation of dwarf energy increases and also naturally water requirement of trees
cherry trees system with solar powered Brushless DC Motors increases.
(BLDC) has been designed and implemented in Zile District of Photovoltaic powered water pumping systems
Tokat Province of Turkey. One of motor was used for driving
deep well pump which has been utilized for the purpose of water
(photoirrigation) have been studied by researchers in many
storing to a pool. The other one was used for driving centrifugal years. Studies mostly concentrated on DC motors cause of
pump which has been utilized for the purpose of transferring of energy obtained from solar panel is DC [3]-[8]. These are
water waited in pool to drip irrigation. Optimum solar panels shown that better results were obtained for performance
were selected according to calculated maximum power analysis [9]-[11]. Photoirrigation system has advantages than
consumption of motors. The need of energy of BLDC Motors has flooding irrigation. Some of these are, bringing utilization of
been provided from solar panels and batteries. Sun tracking
system was used for increasing efficiency of system. A DC-DC water sources more efficient, preventing erosion and growing
buck converter has been developed to feed motor and charge the of weeds only by irrigating the requested areas [12],
batteries safely. Automation of system was provided with RF decreasing moisture stress [13], no operation cost, providing
modules, soil moisture sensors and solenoid valves. opportunity for local energy sources and exhibiting a parallel
point of view with water requirement [14]. In terms of
Index Terms Brushless DC motor, drip irrigation, RF automation, developed wireless technologies, researches
module, soil moisture sensor, solar energy
focused on automatic irrigation with sensors in agricultural
systems [1],[15]-[25]. The advantages of using wireless
sensor is to reduce wiring and piping costs, and easier to
I. INTRODUCTION
install and maintenance especially large areas [26].
Gradually decreasing energy sources and increasing Disadvantages of it are their high initial capital costs, the
demand for energy in recent years, makes more efficient and variability of the yield of the solar panels according to the
positive use of current water resources together with global prevailing weather conditions and in high temperature
warming and drought. 75 % of the current fresh water efficiency decreases [12]. At the current prices of PV
consumption is agricultural irrigation in Turkey. Therefore, modules, the cost of the proposed photovoltaic powered water
efficient water management plays an important role in pumping system is found to be less expensive than the cost of
irrigated agricultural cropping systems [1]. Since the sources the conventional fuel system. The expected reduction in the
utilized for the purpose of producing electricity are limited prices of photovoltaic modules in the near future will make
and their prices gradually increase researches for new photovoltaic powered water pumping systems more feasible
alternatives for irrigation systems become more important. [14].
Energy of pumps used for the agricultural irrigation is In this study an automatic photoirrigation system was
generally provided from electrical energy or fossil fuels. designed at Zile District of Tokat Province of Turkey with
Since fossil fuels commence to annihilate besides its two BLDC motors because of their high operating efficiency,
increasing of prices and hazards to environment alternative brushless construction, maintenance free operation than the
energy seeking efforts has become inevitable also in others. Optimum power of motors and solar panels were
agricultural sector. Solar energy that is sensitive to selected according to calculated maximum power
environment, clean and requiring no maintenance is an consumption. Moreover BLDC motors, 48 PV arrays, a 100
alternative renewable energy source especially for countries tone water storage tank, 8 batteries and DC/DC converter
like Turkey having a high amount of annual solar irradiation were applied to irrigation of 1000 dwarf cherry trees planted
rate. When it is considered by means of requirement for to 8 decares has been realized with drippers each having a
irrigation the advantage of PV pumping systems is that water capacity of delivering 2 liters and kept under 3 bars pressure.
demand and increasing for sun shining are compatible Batteries are used in most of PV systems to perform two
essential functions: power buffer between the arrays and load,
and energy storage.
Manuscript received February 9, 2012; revised March 11, 2012. This
work was supported in part by the Turkish Ministry of Industry and Trade Designed system was provided site-specific management
named project 00228.STZ.2008-1 SANTEZ and Zile Mercantile Exchange. of irrigation systems with solar powered wireless acquisition
M. Dursun is with the Department of Electrical & Electronic stations. Portable 3 units and software named ValCon were
Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Gazi University, Ankara, TURKEY
(e-mail: mdursun@gazi.edu.tr). developed. These units consist of a base station unit, solenoid
S. Ozden is with the Department of Electrical, OSTIM Vocational High valve unit and sensor unit. All of these units involve UDEA
School, Gazi University, Ankara, TURKEY (e-mail: brand RF module, omni-directional antenna, 7 V-1.8 W solar
semihozden@gmail.com).

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panel and low power Microchip PIC18F452 micro controller A. Pumps and Motors
chip. Additionally the sensor unit has soil moisture sensor, the BLDC-1 motor and panel connection type was given in
valve has 12 V, 10 W normally-closed solenoid valve and Fig.3. Lorentz brand, 96 V, 3 phases, 1.6 kW motor was
battery. ValCon developed by authors with C# language in utilized with its driver that is capable of directly connecting to
Visual Studio.Net 2008 allows selection of control type solar panels. 24 pieces of panels each power of panels 80 W
(automatic or manual) and saving soil moisture data. MATH totally 1.92 kW installed to provide energy that is needed for
Design of Automatic Photoirrigation System BLDC1. Motor is capable of filling the pool in 16-17 hours
sunshine in cloudless weather conditions. Dam Lake and solar
panels for BLDC-1 (pump-1) were shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 3. BLDC1 motor and solar panel connection

Fig. 1. Application of the system

II. DESIGN OF AUTOMATIC PHOTOIRRIGATION SYSTEM

Automatic irrigation of 1000 pieces of cherry trees planted
to 8 decares area in Zile District has been realized with system
consisting of solar panels. Overall scheme of the system was
Fig. 4. Dam Lake and solar panels for BLDC-1
shown in Fig. 1 and planted area was shown in Fig. 2. Deep
well pump with BLDC1 motor provided transport of water BLDC-2 motor with a power of 3 kW with 48 V has
taken from Dam Lake to store and required pressure was coupled with centrifugal pump. 24 piece of panels each
provided for drip irrigation centrifugal pump with BLDC-2 having 80 W totally 1.92 kW has been assembled to provide
motor with passing filters. Totally 3000 drippers were energy that is needed for BLDC2. However battery bank is
installed to the lateral pipe as 3 drippers for each tree by also added system to provide energy for motor in case sun
considering the water demand of trees after they grow. With irradiation is low. Installed battery power is 6240 W and can
the drippers which has been selected with a capacity of 2 l/h supply irrigation system without sun irradiation along 4 hours.
water feeding the pressure is 3 bars dripping has been kept Water obtained in the output of pumps, has been passed from
constant with a battery system. Only one set (solenoid valve required filters to prevent congestion of drippers and
unit, sensor unit and base station unit) is shown for connected to the main pipe of drip irrigation. In Fig. 5,
automation of irrigation control. But totally 14 pieces of connection scheme of BLDC-2 motor was shown.
Sensor Unit (SU) and Solenoid Valve Unit (VU) were used Microcontroller is used control of converter PWM signals.
for per lateral on reality. Decagon brand soil moisture was Feedbacks of system are battery voltage and current, output of
used for SU which evaluate data and send information (open solar panels current and voltage, and output of converter
or close) to valve unit. Position of valve was changed current and voltage. These feedback values are sensed by
according to information received by SU. Also all data and microcontroller analog input.
position of valves were monitored by the software on a
computer named ValCon which developed by authors. Also
ValCon allows control of valves independently. The VU also
involves 12 V, 10 W normally-closed solenoid valves and a
battery.

Fig. 5. BLDC2 motor and panel connection

Fig. 2. Planted dwarf cherry trees Fig. 6. Solar panels for BLDC-2 and water tank

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volumetric water content (VWC) using a capacitance

technique. Solar panel and SU included RF antenna, mounted
soil moisture sensor and PCB of control was shown in Fig 9.

Fig. 7. BLDC-2, centrifugal pump and filters

Solar panels and water tank were shown in Fig. 6. BLDC-2,

centrifugal pump and filters were shown in Fig 7.
B. Converter and Control Circuit
DC-DC converter, motor and PV was shown in Fig 8. Gate
signals of MOSFETs were provided by PIC microcontroller.
Fig. 9. Solar panel and sensor unit
MOSFET-1 controls output voltage of solar panels. When
system was started, firstly batteries voltage had been
measured. If voltage of batteries is not less than value of D. Software (ValCon)
deeply discharged, MOSFET-2 is opened. It also achieves ValCon developed by authors with C# language in Visual
only charge mode. Studio.Net 2008 were used to control valves and save data.
Control method of irrigation (automatic or manual) could be
selected by users. User interface of manual control was shown
in Fig 10 and automatic control was shown in Fig 11. Data of
sensors is shown in text box related to sensor number in both
of two selections. ValCon allows saving sensor data, which is
optional, in a file with extension of x.dat. Communication
with RS-232 features can be selected to establish connection.

Fig. 8. Control circuit of PV energy

C. Automation Units
Solenoid Valve Unit (VU), Sensor Unit (SU) and Base
Station Unit (BU) were designed to realize control of drip
irrigation. All of these units involve RF module, antenna, 7 V,
1.8 W solar panel and Microchip PIC18F452 (MCU). This
MCU was selected due to low-cost, processor speed, low
power requirements, rapid software development, and ease of
system integration with custom circuits so that a cheap
irrigation system could be achieved. UFM-M11 produced and
marketed by UDEA Technology Inc. was selected as RF Fig. 10. User interface of manual control
modules. This low power wireless module works 434 MHz
with UGPA-434 coded omni-directional antenna. Radio
transmission range of module is 400-500 meters in
environmental conditions. UFM-M11 uses Frequency-Shift
Keying (FSK) modulation and maximum output of power is
10 dBm. Power consumption is 10 mW at 434 MHz and
current consumption is 17 mA receiver modes, 30 mA
transmitter modes. RF wireless modules were adjusted to
communicate with 9.6 Kbps baud rate with MCU.
10HS coded pre-calibrated Soil Moisture Sensor of
Decagon has been used to measure water content of soil in
SU. Power consumption of 10HS is 12-15 mA and output
voltage is 300-1250 mV (independent of excitation voltage,
3-15 V DC). Measured analog data was sensed with ADC on
PIC chip and evaluated. After defining valve position (on or
off), this information was transmitted to VU. The 10HS
measures the dielectric constant of the soil in order to find its
Fig. 11. User interface of automatic control

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III. CONCLUSION [12] F. Cuadros, F. Lopez-Rodriguez, A. Marcos, and J. Coello, A

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boost converter designed for a photovoltaic array irrigation system, Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Gazi University.
Journal of The Institute of Science and Technology of Erciyes His research interests include motor design, modeling,
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motor driver with boost converter for a photovoltaic array irrigation power filters, and photovoltaic systems, photovoltaic irrigating systems, RF
system, in 3rd Renewable Energy Sources Symposium, Mersin, pp. control and communications, and distance education material design.
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directly coupled photovoltaic water-pumping system, IEEE Trans. on received the BS degree in 2004, the MSc degree in
Energy Conv., vol. 19, pp. 613-618, 2004. 2007 from Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey and is
[10] S. Singer and J. Appelbaum, Starting characteristics of direct current now PhD student of Department of Electric Education,
motors powered by solar cells, IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, vol. Gazi University. His research interests include
8, pp. 4753, 1993. photovoltaic systems, photovoltaic irrigating systems,
[11] M. Kolhe, S. Kolhe, and J. C. Joshi, Determination of magnetic field switched reluctance motors, linear switched reluctance
constant of DC permanent magnet motor powered by photovoltaic for motors, motor control and controllers. His PhDs
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563571, 2000. system for dwarf cherry trees.

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