Study of Precipitation Influence on the Sizing of PV Installation for Irrigation System

The paper presents a study how the precipitations can influence on the rated power of photovoltaic installation for irrigation system. A previously proposed methodology for sizing of renewable energy based power supply is improved to take into account statistical information for the precipitations in the considered installation site. To estimate the influence of this factor the new methodology is applied to 7 different sites in Bulgaria, popular with favorable conditions for the considered agricultural crop - wines. The results show that if the precipitations are taken into account the installed PV system can be reduced even in the case of wines that need irrigation in months with occasional rains - from June to August.