Researchers have shown that solar panels can generate electricity 10 meters (33 feet) beneath the surface.
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Researchers have shown that solar panels can generate electricity 10 meters (33 feet) beneath the surface.
The work was carried out by a team from Yunnan University and the Southwest United Graduate School, and was published in the in the journal Joule.
During the study, field trials conducted off the Weizhou Islands in the South China Sea demonstrated that submerged perovskite solar cells produced 324 mWh of energy over a two-hour submersion window. The generated electrical output is enough to recharge lithium-ion batteries. In addition, tests predicted that the equipment would function autonomously for roughly 5.5 years at depth.
The breakthrough addresses a longstanding technical challenge in offshore monitoring, where sunlight rapidly loses intensity below the surface. To counter the water absorbing different wavelengths, the team engineered wide-bandgap cells tailored to absorb blue-to-orange light wavelengths before testing them on autonomous robotic platforms.
The team plans to evaluate the cells at increasing depths to discover whether they can supply long-term, autonomous green power to submerged cameras, environmental sensors and offshore aquaculture installations.
Lead author Wen-Hua Zhang underscored the significance of extending operational ranges beyond the shallows:
“Very few studies have been reported on underwater solar cells, and all of them are focused on very shallow water depths of only two meters or less, a scenario far from catering for requirements of practical application. This work presents the first functional validation of submerged solar cells practically operating at a water depth of up to about 10 meters, greatly broadening their application scope.”
Zhang highlighted the real-world performance of the hardware:
“What surprised us most was so much electrical energy our large-area modules generated under real-world conditions at 10-meter water depth for only two hours. Moreover, we have achieved scaling from small-area laboratory cells to large-size modules. The combination of the laboratory investigations and the in situ experiments provides strong evidence for the operation of underwater photovoltaics.”
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