Stand-alone irrigation pumping with wind energy
Windpower is one of the oldest forms of energy used for pumping water. Several thousand windmills are still used today to provide water for livestock and domestic needs. Because of the large water volume needed for irrigation, irrigators have selected natural gas, electricity, or diesel fuel as power sources for their irrigation pump. Wind turbines have been successfully used to generate electricity to supplement electrical requirements of irrigation systems; however, not all irrigation pumps have electricity readily available. Because of the need for an independent, high-volume pumping system powered by the wind, the USDA-ARS, Bushland, TX and the Alternative Energy Institute, Canyon, TX have designed and constructed a stand-alone wind-powered pumping system. The initial effort was an in-depth study of all types of pumps in order to locate a pump which could deliver a steady 15-to-20 l/s flow rate while the input power varied in rpm and torque. A progressive-cavity pump was selected as being best for use in moderate and deep well applications where the total head was more than 15 m. A 10-cm progressive-cavity pump was purchased and installed on a 4-kW vertical-axis wind turbine with a mechanical linkage between the wind turbine and pump. Performance data indicated that flow was 10 l/s, and head 12 m at a windspeed of 16 m/s. When the windspeed dropped to 9 m/s, the pumping load caused the wind turbine to stall. Because of the highly variable power output of the wind turbine, no presently-manufactured pump is satisfactory for stand-alone irrigation pumping.
- Research Organization:
- USDA Conservation and Production Research Lab., Bushland, Texas
- OSTI ID:
- 5390261
- Journal Information:
- ASAE Tech. Pap.; (United States), Vol. 82-2528
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
IRRIGATION
WIND-POWERED PUMPS
VERTICAL AXIS TURBINES
DIESEL FUELS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLOW RATE
LOADING
NATURAL GAS
PERFORMANCE
TORQUE
VELOCITY
VOLUME
WIND POWER
WIND TURBINES
DATA
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
INFORMATION
MACHINERY
MATERIALS HANDLING
NUMERICAL DATA
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
POWER
PUMPS
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
TURBINES
TURBOMACHINERY
170601* - Wind Energy Engineering- Applications