 More than half reduction in price per watt of thermoelectric device without increasing the thermoelectric figure of merit of materialsJunphil Hwang, Hoon Kim, Dimuthu Wijethunge, Nagaraj Nandihalli, Yoomin Eom, Hwanjoo Park, Jungwon Kim and Woochul Kim Applied Energy, 2017, vol. 205, issue C, 1459-1466 Abstract: In a power generation system, the price per watt ($/W) is an important parameter to be considered for checking the feasibility for practical implementation. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate that $/W of a thermoelectric device can be reduced to around 60%. The conventional approach to reducing $/W in thermoelectrics is to enhance the thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) of the thermoelectric materials used, which can increase the power output (W). We propose that $/W can be reduced by lowering the material consumption ($) with a slight sacrifice in power output by changing the device architecture. A simple calculation suggests that zT∼6 is needed for such a reduction in $/W based on the conventional approach. This method can be accompanied by a search for high-zT material so that further reduction in $/W can be achieved with efficient thermoelectric materials. Keywords: Generation cost; Thermoelectric device (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:205:y:2017:i:c:p:1459-1466 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.09.080 Access Statistics for this article Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier |
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