It's a fact that almost 70% of the energy released from the fuel by a car engine is lost, mostly in the form of heat. And the turbines that generate most of the world's  electrical power manage to convert only about one-third of their energy into electricity.

Despite the present stumbling blocks, TEGs are nonetheless playing an active role in assisting researchers in pushing the boundaries of scientific discovery out in space where this technology has successfully powered space probes and missions for the last 50 years.

Sadly, energy is "wasted" like this everywhere. Or, more accurately, ends up in a form that is not useful to us. All mechanical systems produce heat as a by-product but most of the time this valuable energy is just thrown away, or written off as a loss.

But thermoelectric materials have been hailed as one solution to this energy problem - they can take heat and convert it into useable electricity. Assembled into so-called thermoelectric generators, or TEGs, they can soak up heat that would otherwise be wasted and produce an electrical current. Critically, they can do it without the requirement for any moving parts.

Read the full article on thermoelectric generators by Laurie Winkless at The Naked Scientists