Analysis of submerged amorphous, mono-and poly-crystalline silicon solar cells using halogen lamp and comparison with xenon solar simulator

Abstract

Utilization of Solar Photovoltaic (PV) cells underwater can mitigate the lack of enduring renewable energy sources in marine environments. In our recent studies, the performance of different commercially available silicon Solar cells have been analysed using Xenon Lamp Solar simulator at shallow depths up to 20 cm and the effect of the variation in the water environments was studied. The obtained results show an immense possibility to utilize various Solar PV cells in the submerged conditions. Therefore, it is essential to study a light source other than Xenon lamp with different spectra and its change in intensities in underwater conditions to analyse the performance of various Solar PV cells. In this work, a Halogen lamp was used, which can cover the IR spectrum efficiently, whereas the Xenon lamp spectrum performed well in the visible spectrum. Also, the halogen lamp spectrum was identical to the black-body irradiance of the real Sunlight and amenable to emit light from near-ultraviolet to deep-infrared. Further, the performance of different Solar PV cells underwater has been examined. Subsequently, the obtained results were compared with our previous studies reported with the standard Xenon lamp of Air mass 1.5. Further, it was observed that the variation of the light source could also play a significant role in the underwater transmission of Solar irradiance. Finally, it was shown that the performance of Solar PV cells, in submerged conditions using an artificial light, was similar to the actual Sunlight.