Studies for the efficiency of a water pumping system for cooling and improving the electrical efficiency of photovoltaic panels

In this work a study is carried out to improve the water pumping system, to be used to improve the electrical efficiency of photovoltaic panels by reducing the operating temperature of the modules. The methodology used modifications in the geometric height of the system and different types of pumping systems, with constant speed and variable speed using a frequency inverter. Through these changes it was verified that there were significant improvements on the cases of the structure elevation and the variation of the speed of the three-phase motor. For the elevation on the structure there was an increase in the flow of 42.9% in the single-phase pump and of 6.53% in the three-phase pump. For adjusted pumping speed, according to the desired flow rate, there was a reduction about 0.12 kW on the power, representing 48% of the rated power of the pump. The best result was obtained with a three-phase pump at reduced speed with an efficiency of 5.16 Watts/liter and 33.1 L/min, sufficient flow to meet the entire system demand.