A PV pumping system using switched reluctance motor (SRM) is thoroughly investigated in this work. This motor is supplied by a d.c. voltage through a simple switching circuit. This drive circuit is much simpler than the normal d.c./a.c. inverter required to supply the induction motor. The efficiency of this motor is considerably higher than that of the equivalent d.c. or induction motors. In addition, because of the simple construction, SRM is cheaper than these conventional drives; Because of the above advantages of the SRM, the proposed system has higher efficiency and lower cost as compared with other systems. A design example is studied in detail to explore the advantages of PV pumping systems based on this new drive. The study of the performance of the proposed system showed that the operating efficiency of the motor is about 85% during most of its working time. The matching efficiency between the PV array and the proposed system approaches 95%. The major part of the losses takes place in the pump and the riser pipes, this loss represents one-third of the total available energy.