Optimized renewable energy powered irrigation system using mathematical programming: a case study for Kiserian, Kenya
Date
2025
Authors
Juma, S.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Energy supply for irrigation in remote areas has been a challenge. Energy is needed to support agricultural activities like pumping water required to enhance crop development and growth in areas that receive less rainfall. There have been efforts to expand the grid for universal access. However, it has been proven to be costly to extend the grid network to remote areas. A suggested solution is to use decentralized systems such as wind and solar. They are affordable, clean sources of energy and readily available. They are affordable, clean sources of energy and readily available. This approach could work well, however, there is insufficiency of data that could help decision makers to settle on the most appropriate solutions. This creates a need for researchers to innovatively develop more data on how solar and wind resources could be optimized for energy applications in agriculture. This study looked at the optimization of solar photovoltaic and wind turbines to pump water for irrigation as a hybrid system that could be utilized at Kiserian, Kajiado county. Tomato crops were used to determine the energy needed to supply water on a hectare piece of land. A hybrid energy system of solar PV and wind turbine was designed using an Equilibrium Optimizer (EO) algorithm and simulated using MATLAB R2024b software. The model was used to perform the net present cost of the integrated system to generate the optimal result. Then the levelized cost of energy was determined to assess the economic performance of hybrid system. The results were compared with standalone solar PV and wind turbines. The study revealed that it was economical for small-scale farmers to power an irrigation system using solar PV as a standalone, and the hybrid of solar PV and wind turbine would work well for large scale farmers.
Keywords:
Renewable energy system, solar photovoltaic, wind turbine, Equilibrium Optimizer Algorithm, Net Present Cost, Levelized Cost of Energy and Optimization.
Description
Full - text thesis
Keywords
Citation
Juma, S. (2025). Optimized renewable energy powered irrigation system using mathematical programming: A case study for Kiserian, Kenya [Strathmore University]. http://hdl.handle.net/11071/15974