Abstract
The scope for water-based photovoltaic (WPV) installations has raised questions related to its performance in comparison to traditional land-based photovoltaic (LPV) installations. In literature, few studies exist, and they mainly highlighted the performance of WPV and LPV based on energy analysis but fails to give a detailed understanding. In this paper, the exergy based parametric approach is used to understand the realistic performance and the energy conversion process of the photovoltaic (PV) module in both water and land environments. Three amorphous silicon thin-film PV modules installed in ground-mount PV (GMPV), floating PV (FPV), and submerged PV (SPV) methods are considered for experimentation to understand the exergy performance. The experimental results show that the exergy efficiency is varied for each installation method. It is observed that the exergy efficiency of SPV is 3.07% higher than the FPV and 43.65% higher than GMPV installation methods, respectively. Overall, the thermodynamic analysis of the thin-film PV module provided in this study delivered a critical understanding of the performance, and this study will serve as a useful reference in selecting the best installation methods.
•Exergy input available at submerged photovoltaics (SPV) is lesser when compared to floating photovoltaics (FPV).•The exergy losses are more in ground-mount photovoltaics (GMPV) when compared to other FPV and SPV.•The exergy output of FPV and SPV is high when compared to GMPV and this is due to low exergy thermal.•The exergy efficiency of SPV is 3.07% and 43.65% higher than the FPV, and GMPV installation methods respectively.