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To accomplish a completely sustainable environment and meet the United Nations' sustainable development goal, power generation from solar photovoltaics (PV) is indispensable. Nevertheless, because of the low power conversion, land-based PV (LPV) plant needs a substantial amount of land, which is an intricate issue. Because of the growth of the population and agricultural production, land availability is not sufficient. In addition, the cost of the land enhances the overall cost of the LPV projects. Water-based PV (WPV) can solve these issues. WPV includes floating PV (FPV), underwater PV, offshore PV and canal top PV. In this work, a comprehensive review work has been performed for WPV systems. Details of different WPV systems have been documented first in detail and later the three critical ambient factors such as wind load, albedo and ambient temperature on the performance of WPV systems have been discussed. Among WPV, shallow water (lakes, ponds, dams) FPV-type deployments are growing rapidly. FPV possess higher electricity generation and abates water body evaporation. Overall, WPV system is a solution for untapped surfaces that can be converted into green energy generation sources and can stop the conflicts with residential and agricultural lands. However, the adverse impact of WPV systems on the marine ecosystem and biodiversity was also pointed out. It is evident that though WPV systems have significant potential and benefits, considering other effects it is not fully comparable with land-based systems. Thus, careful planning is essential before placing a WPV system to minimise natural damage and improve the environmental impact.
Aritra Ghosh (Thu,) studied this question.