Assefa, Abebayehu (PhD)Bonsa, Muleta2018-07-312023-11-182018-07-312023-11-182013-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/10685This study assess the economic viability of solar PV systems for water pumping project in Borana zone, where groundwater is the main source of water for the population, and compare it with the conventional option of using decentralized Diesel-powered generators to supply electricity to pump water from bore hole. Life cycle cost analysis for both systems have been done by accounting for the higher initial cost of PV system and compared it with Diesel system. However, the high running costs for the Diesel system could still encourage the selection of PV system considering its reliability, the longer life as well as the lower maintenance and operation costs. AC submersible water pumps have been investigated to analyze the feasibility of the system because of the unavailability of DC submersible pumps that can operate at higher depth and discharge. There are 13 wells on this site and all of them are designed to operate with a diesel generator of 75 kW. The investigation is done on three wells with AC pumps of 22 kW, 25 kW, 30 kW, and discharge of 7.5 l/s, and total head of 165 m and 170 m to analyze the amount energy saved in each case and the total area required for PV installation. The rest of the wells have similar discharge, head and aquifer with the selected wells because the distance between each well is 500 m only. The comparison between both systems was extended to cover the environmental impacts. Environmental impacts have been identified and discussed because there is a higher concern worldwide regarding environmental issues including greenhouses gases emissions. The result obtained indicates that the project will start generating profit in the fourth year of operation, the unit water cost for all cases of PV system are less than that of unit cost of DG systems and important financial parameters such as IRR, equity pay-back and NPV show solar energy is the viable alternative source of energy for water pumping systems in the study area. The economic analyses were done using RETScreen-4 software to investigate the financial feasibility and cash flows for water pumping system.enThermal Engineering StreamThesis