Concentrating solar thermoelectric generators with a peak efficiency of 7.4%
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Concentrating solar and SI.pdf
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Author(s)
Jie, Qing
Cao, Feng
Liu, Weishu
Ren, Zhifeng
Kraemer, Daniel
McEnaney, Kenneth
Weinstein, Lee Adragon
Loomis III, Robert James
Chen, Gang
Date Issued
September 2016
Journal
Nature Energy
Citation
Kraemer, Daniel; Jie, Qing; McEnaney, Kenneth; Cao, Feng; Liu, Weishu; Weinstein, Lee A.; Loomis, James; Ren, Zhifeng and Chen, Gang. “Concentrating Solar Thermoelectric Generators with a Peak Efficiency of 7.4%.” Nature Energy 1, no. 11 (September 2016): 16153 © 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Concentrating solar power normally employs mechanical heat engines and is thus only used in large-scale power plants; however, it is compatible with inexpensive thermal storage, enabling electricity dispatchability. Concentrating solar thermoelectric generators (STEGs) have the advantage of replacing the mechanical power block with a solid-state heat engine based on the Seebeck effect, simplifying the system. The highest reported efficiency of STEGs so far is 5.2%. Here, we report experimental measurements of STEGs with a peak efficiency of 9.6% at an optically concentrated normal solar irradiance of 211 kW m⁻², and a system efficiency of 7.4% after considering optical concentration losses. The performance improvement is achieved by the use of segmented thermoelectric legs, a high-temperature spectrally selective solar absorber enabling stable vacuum operation with absorber temperatures up to 600 °C, and combining optical and thermal concentration. Our work suggests that concentrating STEGs have the potential to become a promising alternative solar energy technology.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.153
