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Concentrating solar thermoelectric generators with a peak efficiency of 7.4%

Nature Energy volume 1, Article number: 16153 (2016) Cite this article

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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.

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Figure 1: CSTEG concept and proof-of-concept experiment.
Figure 2: Performance characteristics of a STEG optimized for high optical concentration.
Figure 3: Performance characteristics of a STEG optimized for moderate optical concentration.
Figure 4: Theoretical predictions of STEG efficiencies and corresponding optimal solar absorber temperatures.

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Acknowledgements

This material is partially based upon work supported as part of the Sunshot Initiative funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy under Award Number: DE-EE0005806 (for device engineering) and based upon work supported as part of the Solid State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award Number: DE-SC0001299/DE-FG02-09ER46577 (for materials).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

    Daniel Kraemer, Kenneth McEnaney, Lee A. Weinstein, James Loomis & Gang Chen

  2. Department of Physics and TcSUH, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204, USA

    Qing Jie, Feng Cao, Weishu Liu & Zhifeng Ren

Authors
  1. Daniel Kraemer
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  2. Qing Jie
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  3. Kenneth McEnaney
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  4. Feng Cao
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  5. Weishu Liu
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  6. Lee A. Weinstein
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  7. James Loomis
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  8. Zhifeng Ren
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  9. Gang Chen
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Contributions

D.K. carried out modelling and simulation, CSTEG fabrication and experiments, and prepared the manuscript; Q.J. and W.L. fabricated the thermoelectric and contact materials; K.M. contributed to CSTEG fabrication and experiments and device modelling; F.C. fabricated spectrally selective solar absorbers; L.A.W. contributed to manuscript preparation and CSTEG fabrication and experiments; J.L. contributed to CSTEG fabrication and experiments; Z.R. directed research at UH; G.C. directed research at MIT and contributed to the manuscript preparation.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Zhifeng Ren or Gang Chen.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figures 110, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2, Supplementary Methods and Supplementary References (PDF 1841 kb)

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Kraemer, D., Jie, Q., McEnaney, K. et al. Concentrating solar thermoelectric generators with a peak efficiency of 7.4%. Nat Energy 1, 16153 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.153

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