Volume 1: Energy Innovations: Accelerated Deployment, New Concepts, and Emerging Technologies

Development of Peltier Cooling and Thermoelectric Generation based Storage System Gautam A. Raiker, Subba Reddy B., L. Umanand

Abstract

Storage is going to be a crucial part of the electrical grid of the future, with the penetration of renewables. It is necessary to have a long-term storage method to take care of seasonal variations of Solar Energy. The system must be environmentally friendly and must not have hazardous materials. A thermoelectric storage system is proposed in this work to take care of these challenges. Cooling of a Phase Change Material can be done via Peltier modules and the energy to supply latent heat of fusion can be considered as the charging process. By operating the Peltier modules as a thermoelectric generator (i.e. Seeback Effect) the discharging of the cell can be done. The system must be suitably insulated to prevent heat loss. Coefficient of performance and efficiencies of the thermoelectric modules may be a deterrent but by modulating power judiciously via Power Electronics the technology can be scaled up.

Keywords Storage, Peltier Cooling, Thermoelectric (TEC) Generation, Solar Photovoltaic Integration