Comparative assessment of the feasibility for solar irrigation pumps in Sudan

Irrigation is one of the essential unit operations for agriculture and Sudan as an agricultural country with rich natural resources has an urgent need to optimize the utilization of energy, water, and land in a most sustainable way. The cost-effective irrigation pathway utilizing one of the clean energy technologies such as solar energy would contribute significantly to the sustainable development of agricultural sector in Sudan. This paper is intended to investigate the most cost-effective solar water pumping system for irrigation in Sudan. Three solar irrigation pumps were considered based on the collector configuration and type of energy conversion to include two thermal and one photovoltaic pump; parabolic trough pump (PTP), concentrating dish pump (CDP), and photovoltaic pump (PVP). Levelized energy cost (LEC) was used in this study as the economic indicator for the feasibility of solar water pumping systems. A comparative assessment model was developed based on weather conditions of Sudan and sensitivity analysis was conducted to study the effect of design parameters, weather conditions, and interest and inflation rates on the LEC of solar water pumping systems. The resulted LECs for PVP, CDP, and PTP in the base case were found to be 0.033 $/kWh, 0.062 $/kWh, and 0.075 $/kWh, respectively. PVP is the most feasible pathway among solar irrigation pumps in Sudan, and its initial cost per unit hydraulic power capacity is 1351 $/kW, compared to 4072 $/kW and 4884 $/kW for CDP and PTP, respectively.