Economic and energy-exergy analysis of a novel in-plane solar segmented annular thermometric generator

Recently, thermoelectric devices have attracted a lot of attention as an alternative solution to solar photovoltaic systems to produce electricity and heat from solar energy. However, the low conversion efficiency of such devices avoids widespread application of solar thermoelectric generators. In this research, a novel in-plane annular structure with segmented legs is proposed for solar thermoelectric generators which can greatly increase the flexibility in design making it as a wearable efficient solar thermoelectric generator. Three-dimensional validated numerical simulations are carried out using finite-element-method. The impacts of various geometrical configurations and operational factors on various efficiency characteristics of the generator such as output-power, conversion-efficiency, exergy-efficiency, and costs are investigated to recognize the optimum range pf those factors. Segmented solar annular generator leads to higher values of the output power for the heat flux values higher than the 30kW/m². Moreover, the output power of the SSATEG first increases with increment of the angle-ratio and then declines. The angle-ratio with the maximum output-power leads to the minimum dollar/watt value. A large amount of reduction in dollar/watt value can be observed as the heat flux increases. Additionally, results indicate that an increment of the height ratio in n-type and p-type legs raises the conversion and exergy efficiency.