Photovoltaic Water-Pumping System with Low Decoupling Capacitance for Remote Communities

A photovoltaic-based water-pumping system for crop irrigation in remote communities is presented in this paper. The electronic drive is composed of two stages: a step-up converter and a three-phase inverter. In order to minimize possible environmental impacts and reduce maintenance levels the use of batteries is avoided. Moreover, no electrolytic capacitors are employed in the DC-link, which increases the converter's expected lifetime but brings about control difficulties. Two controllers are separately designed for each stage and, subsequently, a nonlinear interconnection between both loops is created to account for the low decoupling capacitance. In situ experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the final product despite irradiance intensity variations and the harsh environmental conditions.