Micro-generators, TMGs

With the discovery of the unique cooling properties of Driver Coil Material came the idea of using this new exotic material with existing tried and tested technologies to create reliable and ‘perpetual’ power source.

Driver Coil material (DCM) produces a self sustaining temperature difference, by converting high temperature heat into work in the form of field distortion, and in doing so lowers its own temperature to only a few degrees Kelvin (DCM material can’t harvest energy lower than this, and thermodynamic law preserved). This unusual self-sustaining property can be used to advantage by layering sheets of thermopile material over the self cooling block of DCM. The Peltier elements around the block exploit the temperature difference between the relatively warm terrestrial environment and the chilled surface of DCM and produce a reliable and continuous electrical power supply.

Miniaturization has large been unsuccessful, due to the relatively inefficient thermopile elements that are available, a typical unit is cylindrical, being about ten centimetres in diameter and the same across its length. In the centre of this unit there is a slim rod of DCM usually the same length of the unit, but no larger than half a centimetre on diameter. The amount of power that can be scavenged is quite low, typically a few dozen watts, and this is variable on the environmental temperature, though the supply gathered is usually very stable.

Although more sophisticated energy devices have been made, Thermopile Micro-generators (TMGs) are simple and very reliable, they are most commonly used for power sources in terrestrial devices, such as seismometers which need constant power supplies and are often situated well away from any energy distribution nets. As well as supplying electricity for small instrument packages the cooling effect can be exploited, usually for improving the efficiency of conducting material, or to provide cooling for instruments.

Though each unit only lowers local temperature around the instrument, it is recommended that these units are not simply discarded, as the DCM material will continue to power the device effectively indefinitely, and the DCM’s lifetime is similarly indefinite. Recovery of deployed devices is aided by the fact that the faint spatial disturbances they generate are easily detectable, so probes launched from a craft can rapidly be located and recovered by teleporter at the end of a surveying.

These units are most efficient when they have a good transfer medium to exchange heat with environment this has suited terrestrial application because atmosphere, ocean and even the land itself provide efficient surface to exchange heat with. These units have failed in wide scale applications in space environments as the available energy is much lower in most situations, and the direction of the radiant heat usually arrives from one direction only (though the heat differences between illuminated side and shadow side can be used, though this runs up the same problems of low energy density).

A few experimental unit types are designed to sit above a star’s atmosphere, the heat transferred to the DCM is not only used for energy production, but the field generating effect is used for propulsion and stops the unit falling into the star. These projects offer the ability to provide detailed close surface sensor readings, and measurements of ionic compositions and flux types and also the magnetic environment. However few of these units have been made, the long term effect of DCM introduction to stars interior is relatively unknown, though research points to rapid degradation, or expulsion of the material.