Utilizing Thermoelectric Generator Peltier

in Using Solar Thermal Energy

as Renewable Energy Source
Aditya Gautama Darmoyono
Electrical Engineering Departement
Politeknik Negeri Batam
Kota Batam, Indonesia
adityagautama@polibatam.ac.id
Herman R. Suwarman Ai Nurhayati
Industrial Engineering Departement Industrial Engineering Departement
Sekolah Tinggi Teknologi Bandung Sekolah Tinggi Teknologi Bandung
Kota Bandung, Indonesia Kota Bandung, Indonesia
suwarman.mac@gmail.com ain38375@gmail.com

Abstract—This research aim is to design a simple renewable difference between the sides so that it can generate suitable
energy device that uses thermal energy from the sun to generate voltage and current.
electricity. The main conversion component is the thermoelectric
generator (TEG) Peltier. Due to the low Peltier output, low II. PELTIER CHARACTERISTIC
voltage and low current, improvement is needed. The
improvement approaches in this research are by connecting the A. The element of a Peltier
Peltier in series array and constructing a solar heat trap. In the The types of Peltier that we used in this experiment are
end, the device managed to achieve 1.88 mW output (1 Volt and the thermoelectric generator (TEG) ones. It has a serial
1.88 miliAmpere). This experiment provides an insight on how to number SP 1848 27145 SA. This Peltier has voltage, and
improve Peltier output in real-world environment. internal resistant characteristics varied [1], depends on the
temperature different between its hot and cold surface. These
Keywords—renewable energy, thermoelectric generator characteristics can be seen on table I, from [3], below.
Peltier, solar heat trap, generating electricity
We can see from table 1, as the different temperature rise
I. INTRODUCTION the more voltage it produces. This is the basic principle that
The expansion of the world economy will create an ina we use in designing our device. In order to increase
crease in energy demand. It is generally believed that temperature different between plates, we use solar heat trap
renewable energy technologies can mea et the growing on the hot side plates of the Peltier.
demand at prices that are equal to or lower than those usually
forecast for conventional energy. The contribution of TABLE I. PELTIER CHARACTHERISTIC
intermittent renewables, in the renewable energy-intensive Electrical Characteristic
ΔT
scenario, by the middle of this century could be as high as (0C)
Current Potential Power
30% [8]. (miliAmpere) Different (Volt) (Watt)
20 225 0,97 0,22
All renewable energy sources combined account for only
40 368 1,8 0,66
22.5% share of electricity production in the world in 2010
[8]. One of the renewable energy sources is thermal energy. 60 469 2,4 1,13
Thermal energy can be produced by the sun or by daily 80 558 3,6 2,01
human activities. The research on solar thermal energy has 100 669 4,8 3,21
been going on for years. One of the examples is using it as a
water heater [6]. Other researchers use the heated water
vapor to turn turbine coupled with a generator to produce The TEG Peltier can be modeled as a voltage source in
electricity [8]. While thermal energy waste from human series with an internal resistance, from [1], which can be
activities such as using vehicle [4], stove [9], furnace [13], or seen in the picture below. The dotted line represents as TEG.
from industrial activities [10] has been researched. One of
the conversion device in thermal energy usage is Peltier.
Based on the fact above, this research tried to combine
the two approaches to using thermal energy. Using heat trap
from the solar thermal energy to heat Peltier, that usually
being used to capture thermal energy waste. This research
tried to simplify the system to generate energy from thermal
sources and increasing the output from Peltier at the same
time. Fig. 1. Thermoelectric Peltier as a voltage source
The base principal of Peltier electrical generation is the
The p- and n-type semiconductors that formed a
Seebeck effect. In 1823 Seebeck experiment by using two
thermoelectric device are arranged in series electrically, and
different conductor material and connecting it to form a
in parallel thermally [1]. This can be seen, from [1], in fig. 2.
closed loop. He then heated one junction of the conductor
The current and voltage for each pair of p- and n-type of
that resulted in a current flow trough the closed loop. One of
semiconductor (PN couple) can be formulated, from [4], as
the main problems with Peltier is creating a big temperature
follow:

978-1-5386-8066-7/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE


where R2 is the load resistance, n is the total number PN
couple, Rj1 is the electric resistance of j unit of PN couple,
Tj1 is the assumed averaged temperature of the hot side of
one unit length in the axial direction, Tj2 is the assumed
averaged temperature of the cold side of one unit length in
the axial direction, Sj is the Seebeck coefficient. The symbol
Sjp1 states Seebeck coefficient of the p-type semiconductor
on the hot side of the semiconductor, while Sjp2 states
Seebeck coefficient of the p-type semiconductor on the cold
side of the semiconductor. The same analogies for Sjn1 and
Sjn2.
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of thermoelectric couples
The approximation calculation of Seebeck coefficient
from laboratory measurement using two thermocouples can
be done by using the equation, from [2], as follow:
where Sneg is the thermocouple negative leg Seebeck
coefficient, STC is the thermocouple Seebeck coefficient,
Vpos is the voltage across the sample and positive leg of the
thermocouple, Vneg is the voltage across the sample and the
negative leg of the thermocouple.
Another important characteristic is ZT or the
thermoelectric figure of merit, it is formulated, from [2], as
follow:
where σ is the electrical conductivity, S is the Seebeck
coefficient, T is the absolute temperature of the material, κ is
the thermal conductivity. Variable ZT is dimensionless and
usually have value 1. This ZT variable provides an overall
assessment of the thermo-element’s electrical conversion
efficiency [4]. Higher ZT value states an increase in
electrical conversion efficiency.
B. Peltier Performance
When the temperature is fixed, the electrical power
produced by Peltier varies according to the current drawn by
the load. In order to maximize power from Peltier, the load
impedance should be equal to the Peltier internal resistance.
The point at which the Peltier produce maximum possible
power to the external load at a certain temperature is
achieved when VOC/2 or ISC/2. This point is called The
Maximum Power Point (MPP) [1].
To see the performance curve of TEG Peltier, we can plot
its power (P) against the load current (I). From this curve, we
can see the MPP, as the highest point (maxima) in the
parabolic curve of P-I in Fig. 3, from [7], below. In Fig.
Three we can see different performance curve based on the
temperature difference (ΔT).
When the Peltier operated in the left side of the MPP,
reduced current flows trough the Peltier, and the effective
thermal conductivity of the Peltier decreases. In this state, the
thermal energy conducted trough the Peltier is less than at
MPP. Thus thermal load, which is imposed on the overall
system, is lower. This is beneficial in most circumstances
because it will increase the thermal efficiency of the system
[1].
An opposite effect will occur when the Peltier is operated
at the right of MPP. The thermal conductivity increases and
the thermal energy conducted trough the Peltier is greater
than at MPP. Thus resulting in the reduced thermal
efficiency of the system
Fig. 3. Thermoelectric Performance Curve on Different Temperature
From all of the Peltier characteristics above, we can see
that temperature plays an important role. That is the reason
why in this experiment we tried to manipulate temperature to
get a favorable effect from all of the Peltier characteristics.
III. HEAT TRAP CHARACTERISTICS
To achieve a huge temperature difference between the
two plates of the Peltier, we construct a heat trap. This heat
trap purpose is to amplify the heat from the sun. In the heat
trap, there are two main group of material that is being used,
which is heat insulator and heat conductor.
The important characteristic in selecting this material is
their thermal conductivity and absorptivity. Thermal
conductivity is the measure of the ability of a material to Fig.
Conduct heat [5]. Absorptivity, an important radiation
property of a surface, is the fraction of radiation energy
incident on a surface that is absorbed by the surface [5]. In
selecting the material for heat conductor, material with high
thermal conductivity will be suitable. While for heat
insulator material with low thermal conductivity is chosen.
For absorptivity, a material that has α value near unity will
be used.
The heat conductor that being used is painted black
aluminum foil, silicon thermal pad, and aluminum heat sink.
These material function is to transfer heat effectively to and
from the Peltier. The rate of heat conduction can be
formulated, from [5], as follow:
If we assumed that the temperature is evenly distributed
to each of the Peltier, then all of the open circuit voltage
from each Peltier will be the same.
VOC = V1 = V2 = V 3 = … = V12 (6)
In actual operating condition, there might be an imbalance
temperature and difference on each internal resistance on the
Peltier. Under this condition, the current in the circuit can be
written, from [1], as in (7).

As we can see with higher thermal conductivity (kt) and

lower thickness (Δx) the rate of heat conduction can be
higher. While the black paint is applied to achieve α value
near unity. This approach is applied to absorb as many solar Where Vs. is the voltage at the multimeter terminal.
radiations as possible and transfer the heat from radiation as
V5 V6
quickly as possible to the Peltier hot surface.
R5 R6
The insulator consists of wood, styrofoam, and glass. R4
These material are used to prevent heat transfer from the trap V7
to the environment and also act as a heat amplifier. In order
to increase insulation properties based on (5), we increase the V4 R7
thickness of the Styrofoam and wood. The Styrofoam and the
wood have 5 cm thickness. We hope that this approach is R3 V8
enough to reduce heat loss from the heat trap to the
environment. V3 R8

In Table II below, we can see some of the thermal G

conductivity of the material, from [5], that being used in this R2
V9
experiment.
V2 R9
TABLE II. THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY AT ROOM CONDITION
Materials Thermal Conductivity
R1 V10
(W/m.K)
Aluminum 237
Wood 0.17 V1 R10

Glass 1.4
R12 V12 R11 V11
Foam 0.026
Silicone Fig. 4. Series Array of 12 Peltier
3.2
Thermal Pad
In this experiment, we arrange our device to be able to
While in table III, from [6], we can see the absorptivity (α) capture, insulate, and amplify solar heat. Thus creating a
from some materials. large temperature difference between the two plates of the
Peltier. With large temperature difference, we expected the
TABLE III. ABSORPTIVITY Peltier array could generate enough voltage and current to
charge a DC battery. The mechanical schematic of our
Materials Absorptivity
device can be seen in Fig. 5.
White paint 0.2
Flat black
0.96
paint
Grey Paint 0.75
Black tar
0.93
paper

IV. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND APPROACH

In this experiment, we use twelve Peltier connected in
series to increase the voltage [15]. The configuration can be
seen below, in Fig. 4. The resistances (R) in Fig.4 are Peltier
internal resistance. Where G is our multimeter position to
measure the open circuit voltage (VOC) and short circuit
current (ISC).
Fig. 5. Mechanical Device Schematic
Where 1 is glass, 2 is black painted aluminum foil, 3 is
Styrofoam, 4 is wood, 5 is a thermocouple, 6 is thermal tape,
7 is TEG Peltier, 8 is an aluminum heat sink. With this
construction, we hope to create a green house effect to trap
the sun’s ray and accumulating enough heat for the Peltier.
 The heat sink that being used are the rectangular fin ones
because, from [14], it gives better performance than the
circular tube fin heat sink. The purpose of this heat sink is to
transfer heat from the cold side of the Peltier into the heat
sink preventing the cold side temperature from increasing.
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT
We test the device in between 8:30 AM – 11:00 AM, in
which the sun shines brightly without any clouds covering it.
During this interval, we record VOC and ISC. The result can be
seen in Table IV below.
TABLE IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT
From table IV we can see that the highest value of ISC is
1.875 miliAmpere and VOC is 1 Volt. This highest value is
accomplished during the temperature difference between the
heat trap and ambient 42.60C after 210 minutes.
From table I, at 400C the VOC should be 1.8 volts and ISC
should be 368 miliAmpere for each Peltier. If the
temperature in the heat trap is assumed the same as the
temperature on the hot surface of the Peltier and the
temperature is evenly distributed to the 12 Peltier, idealized
condition, then the device should get 21.6 Volt. However,
based on the data in Table IV, it is still far away from the
idealized result.
The first source of the problem in our device can be
caused by temperature mismatch on the surface Peltier. This
temperature mismatch can reduce the output of Peltier
especially if it is connected in series array [1]. The second
source of the low output can be caused by the thermal pad
bottleneck. From table II that the thermal pad has only 3.2
W/m.K thermal conductivity which create a bottleneck if we
connect it with the aluminum foil. From [11] we learned that
the thermal interface material would stop becoming a
bottleneck if it has a thermal resistance lower than five
mm2K/W. While from [12] the thermal contact resistance for
the thermal pad is around 0.1 cm2K/W for contact pressure
between 10-1 to 1 MPa. As for this experiment, almost no
pressure is being applied to the thermal pad. The third
problem is the effect of wiring and connectors that further
the power drop from the idealized condition.
VI. CONCLUSION
The conclusion from this experiment is that the thermal
pad still acting as a bottleneck in our device. To improve the
output of Peltier a better material is needed to replace the
thermal pad with higher thermal conductivity and lower
thermal resistance. Another factor to consider is the effect of
connectors and cables in the power drop problem. For the
temperature mismatch, a parallel connection between Peltier
can handle this problem much better than series connection
[1]. Thus a combination of series and parallel connection for
Peltier can be set in order to achieve a balance between
power output and temperature balance in the array for further
research.
This experiment provides an insight on how to improve
peltier output in real world environment, where idealized
condition cannot be found. One of the improvement that can
be applied is by amplifying either the hot or cold, or even
both side of peltier. Higher temperature difference can give a
higher peltier output.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research is funded by the Indonesian Government
institution DIKTI trough the CPPBT research grant program.
We would like to express our gratitude for all of the support
that DIKTI has given. We also would like to thank STTB
and Politeknik Negeri Batam staff and colleague for their
support in this research.
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