Hyderabad: In the background of the plan of the Indian government will launch the deep sea mission in 2022, researchers from the Birl Institute of Technology (BITS), Pilani (Hyderabad Campus) have found that submerged solar cells can be used in monitoring sensors and for other commercial and other commercials and Defense applications such as diving and sea investigations.
As part of a project funded by defense materials and stores of research and development (DMSRDE), the Organization of Research and Defense Development (DRDO), researchers at BITS, Pilani, Hyderabad together with people from the Institute of Indian technology, Kanpur, Learning ‘ Characterization of water and monitoring silicone solar cells in a variety of water settings’.
“Basically, enough solar energy is available under water enough to run independent-powered diving equipment.
The purpose of this study is to develop several capabilities and data repositories from various types of solar cells for its underwater use,” said Sudha Radhika, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, Bit, Hyderabad.
For this, the researchers tested various solar cells which were coated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) – very transparent material, had high light absorption properties and was hydrophobic – underwater.
“When solar cells come into contact with water, it will have a short circuit because conductive water makes optimal encapsulation very important,” said Sanket Goel, the main investigator and professor, electrical and electronic engineering department, bits, Hyderabad.
“Such solar cells, covered with PDM, will convert solar energy into electrical energy, which in turn will help power submerged sensors and other marine equipment.” “Our study found that the output of solar cells under water was 70% of it on the surface, and extensive work occurred to increase it further.” He said that other interesting aspects were in sinking conditions, such as self-cleaning and natural cooling, helping in achieving more power density from solar underwater.
Researchers, including Prasanth Kumar, a PhD scholar, developed test-beds in the bits, Hyderabad campus where they designed and made the underwater environment where they prepared artificial sea water and characterize using solar simulators.
They test cells that are submerged in four water-de-ionized water environments, lakes, real sea water and artificial sea water prepared with commercially bought sea salt and other water droppings.
Based on this study, it was observed that solar cells have great potential to utilize underwater solar energy into electrical energy, which can power many sensors and other systems used in the underwater environment for commercial and defense applications.
“Although there are challenges and obstacles, the results obtained manifest great potential for solar PV technology under water for modern electronics and defense applications.
These results further encourage us to explore more by considering other influencing parameters such as turbulence, temperature And also other impurities, “read research papers, which were recently published in the International Journal of Energy Research.
This group now works to hire other solar cells and conduct studies in the field to spread these capabilities in real applications.