Performance Analysis of Submerged Polycrystalline Photovoltaic Cell in Varying Water Conditions

Abstract

Exploring the underwater solar energy by solar photovoltaic (PV) cells leads to a huge advantage by utilizing the humongous space of water covered by the earth's surface. Even though the amount of solar radiation decreases with the depth of the water, water provides sustainable cooling and cleaning for solar PV cells underwater. There are many challenges and constraints to develop solar PV cells underwater because they are mostly calibrated and amenable to space, dryland, terrestrial, etc., and the solar spectrum is prone to get narrower with the depth of the water. The implementation of solar PV cells underwater is pliable in various commercial and defense applications, such as sensors, water monitoring systems, autonomous vehicles, underwater gliders, etc. In this article, first, a mathematical model has been developed for the solar cell spectrum to incorporate the changes in the solar irradiance with the depth of the water. Furthermore, an experimental setup was designed and implemented to mimic an underwater environment. The performance of the polycrystalline encapsulated solar cell was studied based on the different types of water and the depth of the solar cell underwater. This article manifests that there is a sufficient amount of underwater solar power that can be utilized using PV cells to operate various devices and systems.