The Photovoltaic Water Pumping Systems (PVPS) constitute a potential option to drawdown water in the remote desert locations for domestic usage and livestock watering. However, the widespread of this technique requests an accurate information and experiences on such system sizing and installation. The aim of this work is to determine an optimum Photovoltaic (PV) array configuration, based upon Isofoton (110W/24V) PV modules, adequate to supply a DC Shurflo pump (120W, Im = 4A, Vm = 24V) with an optimum energy amount, under the outdoor conditions of Ghardaia site. Four different PVPS configurations have been put into tests, each system configuration consist of the Shurflo pump PV powered by one of the four different PV array configurations (2Px2S, 2Px1S, 1Px2S and 1 module). The tests have been carried out for different heads between 10 m and 40 m, under sunny daylight hours, at our PV pumping facilities. Through the comparison of the obtained results of different parameters as power, daily cumulative water and the overall efficiency of each PVPS configuration, it has been averred that the combination between the two PV array configurations (2PX1S) and (1PX2S) is suitable to provide the optimum energy. Powered by the selected PV array configuration, the mentioned pump is expected to deliver a maximum daily average volume of water. The recorded average quantity meets the demand of some farms in Djedid region, about 60 km south west of M'Zab valley. (c) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
