Unfortunately, even after decades of material research current thermoelectric materials still have a very low efficiency in converting heat into electrical work and deliver only moderate powers. One can also use the harvested energy to run auxiliary circuits such as autonomous sensors or recycle the lost energy to charge a battery. This form of energy harvesting is potentially useful for electric circuits on modern computer chips that produce large amounts of heat and currently need to be cooled actively in order not to overheat. Thermoelectric effects have generated an immense interest for quite some time already because they offer the possibility to convert heat from the environment into electrical work.
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