A flat plate solar collector is to be considered as a means to drive a pump to irrigate crops. This will be used in place of natural gas pumps presently in use for irrigation. Consider using a single plate collector system that can drive a perfect pump. The insolation is 317 Btu/hr-ft2.
a) Make a plot of the efficiency (work delivered to pump water/solar energy striking collector) as a function of the fraction of energy removed from the collector (collector efficiency).
b) If we can achieve 10percent of the maximum theoretical work, determine the size of the collector required to pump 1000 gpm from a well 1500 ft. The well water temperature is 60 F.