Photovoltaic Irrigation System with Sprinklers

RobertoRoberto Simula


Buon giorno, I’m the owner of Sarciofo Farm, located in Uri, Cerdeña, Italy. In my farm we use sprinkler irrigation to cultivate organic artichoke, our main crop. This kind of irrigation requires constant flow and pressure, using higher pressure than drop irrigation systems. Sprinklers are also very sensitive to pressure variations producing irrigation heterogeneity . Would it be possible to assure these irrigation conditions using PV powered pumps?


investigador L.Narvarte

Hi Roberto. Yes, we have developed a system that allow us to power the sprinklers using only PV energy.

RobertoRoberto Simula


I propose you to test it on my farm , which could be considered as representative of the small/medium sized irrigation farms. With an area of 5 hectares it is divided into 3 irrigation sections. It needs 400 m3/day of water in the summer months . The property has:

– 2 wells with a flow between 5 and 10 litres each
– A collection irrigation reservoir of 2000 m3
– A surface pump to provide the required pressure from the tank outlet to the sprinklers



At my farm there is also an artichoke processing & packaging plant. Have a look, here you have some pictures (link)


investigador L.Narvarte

According to the given data we have designed an isolated PV irrigation system that pumps water from 2 wells to an accumulation raft. And also at the same time from the raft to the sprinkler irrigation system. The system comprises:

– A MARTIFER 40 kWp PV generator over a North-South axes horizontal follower.

– Two CAPRARI 18,5 and 3 kW vertical axis waterpumps to be used in the wells.

– A CAPRARI 7,5 kW surface waterpump to be used in the low pressure sprinkler irrigation system developed by KOMET.

– Three RX frequency inverters one with a power of 22 kW  (3G3RX A4220-E1F) other with 5,5 kW (3G3RX-A4055-E1F) and the last one with 11 kW (3G3RX A4110-E1F) manufactured by OMRON

– An AGRONIC 2500 Irrigation Automatism manufactured by PROGRÉS with a set of sensors (soil humidity, rainfall, temperature, radiation and wind speed)

Here you can see a diagram. (link)

Some Moths Later…