Techno-Economic Obstacles for a Hypothesized Thermoelectric Generation Power Plant (TEGPP)

A thermoelectric generator (TEG) is a solid-state semiconductor device that produces a direct current (DC) voltage when subject to a temperature difference, through a phenomenon known as the Seebeck effect. The TEG technology has been proposed for waste heat recovery, through generating electricity from a source of heat that is not otherwise exploited, such that the hot exhaust gas released from a vehicle engine.In this study, the concept of building a power plant using TEG modules was investigated, both technically and economically. The hypothesized thermoelectric generation power plant (TEGPP) is modular, consisting of a large array of electrically connected TEG units for generating clean electricity without greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, noise, or hazardous solid wastes. The TEGPP considered here is assumed to utilize solar radiation as a heat source, and water as a heat sink. The viability of such a concept was examined here based on available specifications of a high-output TEG module in the market. Benchmarking was carried out considering a high-efficiency photovoltaic (PV) panel in the market, assuming that it operates under standard solar radiation of 1,000 W, and with a standard panel temperature of 25 °C.It was found that in order to have an electric power of a TEG unit similar to that of a PV panel of equal area, the temperature at the hot side of the TEG unit should be about 70 °C if the cold-side temperature is 30 °C. However; under this electric equivalence, the price of the TEG unit is about 90 times that of a PV panel of equal size. At an elevated hot-side temperature of 300 °C for the TEG unit (with the cold-side temperature still 30 °C), the TEG unit can generate power that is about 25 times the power generated by a PV panel of equal geometric size. This big boost in the output power still does not counteract the large cost difference between the TEG technology and the PV technology.