3-phase IM Controlled Solar Electric Boat for Portable Irrigation and Recreational Purposes by using 300VDC/AC Drivetrain

Abstract

This paper presents a solar-powered DC/AC drivetrain design for an electric boat with a portable irrigation system. The optimal boat has 35 PV modules each of 95W (total 3. 3kW), 20 Lead-Acid batteries of 12V90Ah (total 21kWh) as power sources. An induction motor (IM) of 5HP to run the boat and a pump of 3HP for irrigation are the primary loads of the drivetrain. Two 3-phase inverters will control the IM motors. On the storage side, a bi-directional buck-boost converter controls the charging and discharging process. These three controllers operate in MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) mode to capture maximum energy from the solar array that provides 300V of DC optimum transmission voltage. A steel-wooden boat fabricated to carry 100 peoples with the PV modules on the rooftop. The boat’s maximum speed is 5 knots, with a total duration of cruising on a sunny day is around 10 hours. The pump used to irrigate surface water to cover 4 acres of land daily. The performance was justified by the practical implementation to a countryside river.