POWERING AG MOOC| TEPMLATE FOR ASSIGNMENT ONE 2

ASSIGNMENT 1: SOLAR POWERED IRRIGATION SYSTEMS

Assignment OverviewYou will calculate the size of a photovoltaic (PV) panel for a solar powered irrigation system (SPIS) in this assignment. The main goal is to estimate the size (capacity) of a SPIS located in close proximity to a site that is significant to you personally or professionally. Make sure to choose parameters suitable for the specific local requirements.

You will carry out this assignment in teams of about ten people. Upon completion your team admin will submit your group’s report (online upload). In case you have difficulties to find a team, please ask us the Online-Tutors for support. You can reach the Tutors by directing a post to @poweringag or by sending a private message to PoweringAg. The Tutors are happy to assist you by finding a team. First, your peers (fellow MOOC-Participants from the other teams) will review your report upon submission. Second, the course instructor will review your report as well. The course instructor will evaluate your team’s submission regarding it’s eligibility for obtaining the Assignment One Badge. The instructor will also upload a summarized common feedback for Assignment One. The Instructor’s Feedback will address all the relevant issues observed in the individual reports.

In order to simplify the review process of your report, please follow the structure outlined below (chapter 1 to chapter 5). Providing your team’s draft within the marked fields below is the easiest way to use this template.

Please note that the deadline for uploading this assignment is the 21st of February. Please note that the last day to complete the peer review is the 28th of February.

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Group’s name Benedikt Maibaum

Chapter 1: Case study location The proposed solar powered irrigation system will be located in the following area:

Continent Africa

Country Burundi

Region Plaine d’Imbo (30 km north of capital Bujumbura)

Coordinates

Lat -3.09807 Lon 29.27229 [3° 5'56.18"S 29°16'7.37"E]

Short description about the socio economy of the region (max. 500 words)

As I don’t have a real example, I created some for a farm I know in Burundi.Currently there is maize grown as staple food. Palm trees are raised to start palm oil production in a few years. Additionally, some 20 pork, a few cows and 100 chickens are on the farm. What is not needed from maize cultivation is sold on a local market some kilometres away. Irrigation is done manually. The next river is a 1.5 kilometres away, but water is currently taken from a tank which collects harvested rain water. Actually, there is no grid connection. Altitude is 850 m above sea level; average temperature is 20 °C.Located near the equator, you find a tropical climate with two rainy seasons. The major rainy season is from February to April, the minor season from in October/November. Annual rain is around 1,000 mm.

Optional

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Chapter 2: Farming system and water requirement

Farming system (maximum 200 words)

1. Maize, palm trees, sunflower, groundnut

Water requirement (maximum 1000 words)

1. As this is an example I don´t know the requirements by heart, I can only estimate it. Regular irrigation is done by small buckets, directly on the plant. At the moment, water is harvested from the roofs (water stock already available). If this reservoir is empty, water must be collected by a nearby river.

2. As this is an example, I can’t go into details. So let’s assume that the total demand is 1 m³/day.

3.

January

February

March

AprilMay June

July

August

Septem

ber

October

November

December

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

monthly water demand [m³/m]

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Chapter 3: Pumping head (height) calculation

Pumping head (maximum 500 words)

Elevation of river surface: 797 m, let’s assume 2 m less => 795 mElevation of farm site: 854 mDistribution type: Drip/trickle => + 2 m (i.e.854m + 2m = 856 m)Height difference river to water storage tank: 856 m - 795 m = 61 mCalculated without consideration of: pipe diameter, pipe material, pipe length and other influencers.Total Pumping Head [m]: 61 m

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Chapter 4: Sizing of the SPIS

PV panel size (capacity) (maximum 500 words)

As it can be seen in the diagram in chapter 2, for March, April and November, there is enough water available. The following equation to seize the PV system for irrigation is used (Hahn et al 2016):

Data sourcesVday : Chapter 2 of this documentHT: Chapter 3 of this documentGtotal,day: NASA Surface meteorology and Solar Energy: RETScreen Data

The following results have been reached:

Parameter: Daily water demandDaily solar radiation - horizontal

Total pumping head

Solar panel power

Abbreviation V day G total,day H T Ppeak

Unit [m³/d] [kWh/m²/d] [m] [Wp]January 1 4,57 61 108,5February 1 4,94 61 100,4March 0 4,99 61 97,8April 0 4,92 61 99,2May 1 4,9 61 101,2June 1 5,05 61 98,2July 1 5,27 61 94,1August 1 5,38 61 92,2September 1 5,25 61 94,5October 1 4,72 61 105,1November 0 4,41 61 110,7December 1 4,49 61 110,5

Average 101,0Max 110,7Min 92,2

In average, the system needs 101 Wp. The highest demand is 110.7 Wp, the lowest is 92.2 Wp.

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Chapter 5: Summary

PV panel size (capacity) (maximum 300 words)

In this document, the possibility of a SPIS (solar powered irrigation system) has been studied for a sit in Burundi, East Africa. The site is a farm, where maize, palm trees, sunflower and groundnuts are cultivated. The livestock present on the farm has not been taken into account. The aim was to assure access to irrigation water for the months where harvested rain water is not available but climate conditions demand irrigation for the plants. The special water requirements of each crop have not been considered. An estimated daily waster demand of 1 m³ has been anticipated. Besides daily water demand, the height difference has a big impact on the system’s design. The height between water source (a river) and the farm are 59 m, as a drip irrigation should be built, 2 meters must be added as the final tank must be elevated to assure water transport by gravity (between tank and plants). Final height is 61 m (without friction losses or similar). A third parameter is the “Mean daily global solar radiation”, these data have been taken from a website powered by NASA.As it can be seen in calculations made in chapter 4, such a system would need 101 Wp to run. The highest demand is 110.7 Wp, the lowest is 92.2 Wp.