Solar thermal water pumping systems: a review

A number of attempts have been made by scientists to utilize solar energy f or irrigation water pumping. It is mainly a problem of conversion of heat e nergy available from the sun, to mechanical energy. Some ingenious methods have been devised to utilize the available energy at low temperatures. This paper reviews past efforts to develop solar thermal water pumping systems which employ either conventional pumps or unconventional pumps, and emphasi zes how the system modifications were made to suit different pumping condit ions and requirements. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.