Electrical design and installation of solar pumps

Absence of electrical 
protection
Solar panels are seen as a non-hazardous power source because 
each panel produces 12 or 24V, a low voltage that is not dangerous 
in itself. Designers often omit electrical protections (fuses, circuit 
breakers, ...)
But for solar pumping, the voltage of the panels is cumulative to be 
able to operate the pump. As a result, the voltage is often 120V to 
500V, which is dangerous.
Risk of electrocution for users.
Risk of destruction of equipment.
Absence of low-level 
water sensor
Some pumps are self-protected against vacuum operation: they 
are equipped with a sensor that stops them when the well is empty.
But this is not the case for all pumps, and some pumps are installed 
without a sensor.
Destruction of the pump when the well 
is empty.
Most of these defects can be easily avoided, because they come from oversights due to lack of knowledge by the designer, 
or the opposite, due to too advanced technical specifications, causing suppliers to offer substandard and / or inappropriate 
hardware. The purpose of this guide is to find the right balance between too much details in quotation requests, and 
important oversights that can be made by unskilled designers.
By no means this guide will allow the reader to become a solar pumping specialist, other more complete (and more voluminous) 
guides are listed in Annex 1 at the end of this practical guide to improve your knowledge.
For any question, need for precise sizing, any particular case, contact:
[e-mail]  (for AAH staffs and missions only)

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12
SOLAR PUMPING
Guidelines - Electrical design and installation of solar pumps
2. MAIN COMPONENTS 
Solar pumping systems have at least the components listed in Figure 2. They are detailed in the following chapters. These 
main components must be included in the Request for Quotation (RFQ) to ensure that the supplier understands the request 
correctly, and does not forget anything.
To this basic configuration can be added several options listed in Figure 3.