10 Future Perspectives, Applications and Markets for Thermoelectrics

摘要

The current global rate of energy consumption is approximately 400,000 Petajoules per year [10.1, 10.2]. Twenty-five percent of that is consumed by the US, and eighty-five percent is generated from fossil fuels. This leads to a total carbon output of 7 GigaTons (10~9 Tons) per year. The global energy demand will exceed 1 Million Petajoules (10~(21) J) by the year 2050, and the amount of CO_2 in the atmosphere will double, causing a global temperature rise of up to 4℃.