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Solar thermoelectric generators: Pushing the efficiency up

Concentrated thermoelectric generators convert solar energy to electricity, but historically their conversion efficiency has lagged behind their potential. Now, full system efficiencies of 7.4% are achieved by segmentation of two thermoelectric materials and a spectrally selective surface.

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Figure 1: The concept and case for concentrated thermoelectric generators.

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Correspondence to Eric Toberer.

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Toberer, E. Solar thermoelectric generators: Pushing the efficiency up. Nat Energy 1, 16172 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.172

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