عبد العزيز الذبحاني

Water shortage is one of the major problems that face Yemen and in certain areas it is becoming critical . Most people in several areas rely on collectable water in ponds and mountain hides which is normally not sufficient for their need . The water supply in some places comes from wells . This is true in most parts of Yemen. In some areas the wells are as deep as 100 meters . In the majority of locations where water pumping is required out of wells or up along steep mountains the means to power pumps are not available or they are difficult and costly to provide. Photovoltaic power or wind power has been proposed as viable alternatives to conventional power . This work has been carried out with the aim of evaluating PV pumping system. The system under study is made up of a submersible pump type Grundfos SP1A-28 with 100 - 200m head driven by 3x65 V , 550 W motor . The power is delivered from 24 PV modules , each rated at 50 Wp coupled through 1500VA dc/ac inverter . The system is used to pump water out of well to an overall height of 54 meters . The location chosen for the test is at Al-Jarahi Lat 14deg N , Al-Hodeidah Governate , 30 km inland from the Red Sea coast. Our observation of the system over the last five months has shown that the average daily pumping capacity was 8.5 m3 /day, the highest pumping was seen to be 10.4 m3/day and the minimum to be 5.9 m3 / day. The maximum pumping rate was achieved at an insolation of 750 W/m2 on inclined modules: Thus for a normal clear day the utilization of the available solar energy was 75 % .