A new solar powered water pump was patented by Dr. A.R Tavakolpour-Saleh and His graduate student, Mr. H. Jokar in the Department of Mechanical engineering at SUTECH. It is a low cost energy converter based on low temperature Stirling engines that can be used in developing country for pumping water up to 10 meter head. In the presented idea, the thermal energy of the sun is absorbed by a flat plate solar collector and then, converted into mechanical energy through the expansion and compression of a working gas i.e. the air at two temperature levels. A neural network controller powered by a PV panel is used to adjust the operating frequency of the intelligent converter taking into account the adverse operating conditions such that a maximum output power is achieved.
