Flexible Heat Miner

To Market

Flexible Heat Miner

By TR Editors on April 21, 2009

Thermoelectric generators directly convert waste heat into electricity. The Perpetua Power Puck is the first to use a thermoelectric semiconductor on a flexible substrate developed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Because they’re flexible, the pucks–which have pins to disperse excess heat–can conform to curved heat-producing surfaces such as a hot-water pipe or pump. A startup based in Corvallis, OR, is initially marketing the pucks as power sources for wireless sensors at sites such as power plants and dams; affixing the gadget to a surface just 10 ˚C warmer than the surrounding temperature can produce more than five volts and several hundred microwatts of power, enough for a typical wireless sensor. The company will begin shipping products this spring.