A high efficiency cascaded thermoelectric generation system with power balancing mechanism

Due to the low energy conversion efficiency of thermoelectric generation (TEG) devices, it is a key issue to improve the overall efficiency of the TEG system. In this paper, a cascaded TEG system is developed, which includes the cascaded architecture and the power balancing mechanism. In the system architecture, distributed buck-boost converters are mounted between the TEG modules to achieve maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for each TEG module with the power balancing strategy and a central boost-buck converter is used to supply the load. Although the distributed buck-boost converters and the central DC-DC converter have some power losses, the output power of the TEG system can be enhanced obviously due to the MPPT of all TEG modules. Experimental results verify the practical feasibility and effectiveness of the developed system.