Abstract
This paper presents theoretical analysis and experimental validation on the behavior of a proposed thermoelectric power generation system using a solar parabolic dish collector. A low-cost solar thermoelectric generator (TEG) has been designed and fabricated for people in rural areas in India where electric power is still short in supply. Thermodynamics and a heat transfer approach are employed in the theoretical model developed to predict the performance of the solar TEG. A model of the TEG is useful to find the temperature of each junction at different operating parameters. The performance of the designed solar TEG was experimentally tested and verified by an analytical method. Maximum power outputs of 16.43 W and 15.35 W were obtained from theoretical analysis and experimental results, respectively. The average error and standard deviation between theoretical and experimental results are 11.12% and 0.869, respectively. The uncertainty of the TEG electrical power is 2.07%. The proposed TEG model can be used to predict the performance of a TEG at any location.
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Muthu, G., Shanmugam, S. & Veerappan, A. Theoretical and Experimental Study on a Thermoelectric Generator Using Concentrated Solar Thermal Energy. J. Electron. Mater. 48, 2876–2885 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-019-07024-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-019-07024-w