Low power renewable energy system used for power back-up applications: Thermoelectric generator system with geothermal water in simulations

During the use of the geothermal energy for hose heating, there are many situations when the temperature of the geothermal water at the extraction point has to be decreased to the usable values. On this path, the authors propose the use of a low power renewable energy system that could be used in many back-up electric power applications. This system does not diminish in any way the efficiency of the house heating system. The proposed system comprises an electro thermal generation unit with TEG (Thermo Electric Generator) modules, a maximum power point tracking system and a storage unit with Li-ion battery. Due to the fact that the geothermal energy is available all the time, the thermal energy recovered with this system may be used as a reliable back-up energy source for low power applications, such as: security transmission systems, monitoring systems to mention only some of the possibilities. The paper shows the operating principle of the systems modeling based on experimental results and a set o simulations results that confirm the usefulness of the proposed equipment.