THERMALLY SWITCHED THERMOELECTRIC POWER GENERATION

摘要

The Seebeck effect is the generation of a voltage between two junctions of dissimilar materials, and this effect is used to convert heat to electricity using thermoelectric modules containing a plurality of junctions. The efficiency of power generation using these modules is typically very low and much lower than rotating machines such as gas turbines and steam turbines combined with rotating electrical generators. This disclosure presents a method for increasing the efficiency of these thermoelectric modules significantly by thermally switching the heat source to the thermoelectric elements.