The strategies outlined in the European Green Deal and the EU Action Plans on Critical Raw Materials and the Circular Economy highlight the need for an sustainable development of renewable energy ecosystems and the efficient use of resources to promote a decarbonized society. Thermoelectric (TE) technology is regarded as alternative and environmentally friendly technology for harvesting and recovering heat, which is directly converted into electrical energy, as well as for cooling, heating and hybrid applications. The TE technology indeed holds significant potential for sustainable energy practices and the integration of the TE systems could lead to a new era of energy efficiency and contribute substantially to the EU energy sustainability efforts. Although the range of applications that can benefit from the use of devices based on this technology is very wide, there is still a supply chain to be developed. SUSTENET will address this issue by accelerating collaborative interdisciplinary knowledge generation and engagement with industrial partners, maximizing impact through knowledge creation and transfer, conducting environmental impact assessments and promoting research excellence. Additionally, SUSTENET will promote career development through workshops, seminars, and training schools, and will engage in extensive dissemination activities to amplify the impact of the outcomes.
This project aims at the practical realization, the characterization, and the industrial/commercial evaluation of optimized hybrid thermoelectric-photovoltaic (HTEPV) devices. HTEPV devices can convert the solar energy more efficiently than normal solar cells, since the thermoelectric component recovers part of the unused heat generated within them. In this project the hybrid optimization will be obtained with an innovative approach recently proposed within a theoretical/computational study. The principal objective of this action will be the practical hybridization of two kinds of single junction solar cells in HTEPV devices achieving performances higher than the PV cell alone by at least 25%. The project will be organized in three main phases: outgoing phase (first HTEPV development), ingoing phase (second HTEPV development), and a secondment (encapsulation development at a non-academic institution). The project will also contribute to the advance of field of the energy harvesting. It is well known that for renewables, the higher the efficiency the lower is the total-cost/produced-power ratio. Thus, the large expected increase of efficiency for the hybrid devices developed in this action will have a major impact on their price per watt. This will open new concrete possibilities for near-future commercialization of this novel generation of solar harvesters, stimulating industrial productions and new markets. This in turn will lead to a wider diffusion and a higher accessibility of a renewable source of energy for the EU citizens.
The ERC NanothermMa project, led by prof. N. Neophytou of the University of Warwick, has the ambitious yet realistic goal of developing nanotechnological strategies capable of quintupling the thermoelectric efficiency of many materials. The basic idea is to make systematic use of a physical phenomenon known as "electronic filtering", a phenomenon that has already been observed and validated over the years on silicon in the context of a collaboration with the University of Milan Bicocca. Warwick is then developing theoretical models and simulation codes that analyze the physics of the phenomenon in detail, while the University of Milan Bicocca, in collaboration with the University of Pisa (Prof. G. Pennelli), is experimentally validating model predictions. The ultimate goal of the project is the development of an open-source calculation tool that allows to evaluate the best strategies to increase the conversion efficiency of a wide range of thermoelectric materials.
Today the demand for energy-intensive applications in these structures is ever increasing: artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchain, cybersecurity, and meteorological models. Over half of all electricity required to power a datacenter is for its cooling and thermal management systems. DaTEG is designed by the GemaTEG group to reduce the heat emitted by servers in datacenters.
GemaTEG group specialized in the development of thermoelectric systems for the recovery of waste heat from servers. The US group GemaTEG Inc., focused on the CleanTech renewable energy sector and founded at the beginning of 2019 in Seattle (WA) – the Cloud world capital – started the experimental development of thermoelectric systems for the recovery of waste heat generated by servers at the end of 2019 with the establishment of its subsidiary GemaTEG Italia Srl. The products’ development is carried forward within a R&D partnership with the University of Milano Bicocca and other universities and research centers of primary standing at national level.
Heat transport at the nanoscale is crucial for developing efficient thermoelectric materials, allowing differential control of heat and charge transport. At this scale, novel phenomena like wave-like heat transport and directional propagation are observed, enabling thermal diode design. However, measuring thermal conductivity κ in nanostructures is challenging. This project aims to develop reliable techniques for measuring in-plane thermal conductivity in planar and nanosystems, focusing on Si-based nanostructures. The study leverages a decade of expertise to enhance Si thermoelectric performance by engineering nanostructures and metamaterials, such as nanoprecipitates, nanovoids, and nanopillars, to increase the thermoelectric figure of merit. Despite existing methods for cross-plane conductivity, in-plane measurements remain difficult. The project explores promising approaches to address this and evaluates the potential of low-κ Si nanostructures for thermoelectric applications.