A Global Design Approach for Large-Scale Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting Systems

The method described here aims at designing and optimizing a thermoelectric system to maximize the total electrical power produced by a large-scale thermoelectric system with a nonconstant heat source. This method consists of three steps: (i) definition of the thermal and electrical parameters of the thermoelectric generator, (ii) use of a multi-objective optimization method to find the parameter values that maximize the electrical power or the conversion efficiency, and (iii) selection of local operating points for maximum global electrical output. This method shows better performance than other, more intuitive design approaches.