Theoretical efficiency of solar thermoelectric energy generators
Name
Chen_Theoretical efficiency.pdf
Size
1.25 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
9e002d61cb81739149a7201d339dd80f
Author(s)
Chen, Gang
Date Issued
May 2011
Journal
Journal of Applied Physics
Publisher
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Citation
Chen, Gang. “Theoretical Efficiency of Solar Thermoelectric Energy Generators.” Journal of Applied Physics 109.10 (2011): 104908. ©2011 American Institute of Physics
Version
Final published version
Abstract
This paper investigates the theoretical efficiency of solar thermoelectric generators (STEGs). A model is established including thermal concentration in addition to optical concentration. Based on the model, the maximum efficiency of STEGs is a product of the opto-thermal efficiency and the device efficiency. The device efficiency increases but the opto-thermal efficiency decreases with increasing hot side temperature, leading to an optimal hot-side temperature that maximizes the STEG efficiency. For a given optical concentration ratio, this optimal hot-side temperature depends on the thermoelectric materials’ nondimensional figure-or-merit, the optical properties of wavelength-selective surface and the efficiency of the optical system. Operating in an evacuated environment, STEGs can have attractive efficiency with little or no optical concentration working in the low temperature range (150–250 °C) for which Bi[subscript 2]Te[subscript 3]-based materials are suitable.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3583182
