energy from differences in ambient temperature

This might be an interesting development to watch....to see if it can be scaled up.....

http://www.ecosnippets.com/alternative-energy/mit-scientists-device-generates-electricity-from-air/

Not exactly from air, but using differences in ambient temperatures......

I'd be nice if they occasionally posted relevant facts with these kinds of articles.  How big is "relatively small"?  How much power does the device shown in the pictures produce?
I just googled for more articles and none of them answered those questions.

I know that if the difference in temperature is relatively small, the the power output will also be very small.

However, this did give me an idea that might work.  Since I have solar panels and a few thousand gallons of stored rainwater, it has occurred to me that using the water to cool the panels could increase production.  However, when I've ran the numbers the power required to drive the pumps is typically more than the increase in output from the solar panels.  If, however, I was to use thermal couples between the panels and the water cooled heat exchangers, then the thermal-couples might produce enough power to run the pumps (maybe), then again, the cost of all those thermal-couples(and pumps and pipes, and heat exchangers, etc.)  is probably higher than the cost of buying more solar panels.

About halfway down the article:

"A sample of the material made to test the concept showed that, simply in response to a 10-degree-Celsius temperature
difference between night and day, the tiny sample of material produced 350 millivolts of potential and 1.3 milliwatts of
power — enough to power simple, small environmental sensors or communications systems."

It will be interesting to see if anything develops from this application.

R Jay wrote:
About halfway down the article:

"A sample of the material made to test the concept showed that, simply in response to a 10-degree-Celsius temperature
difference between night and day, the tiny sample of material produced 350 millivolts of potential and 1.3 milliwatts of
power — enough to power simple, small environmental sensors or communications systems."

It will be interesting to see if anything develops from this application.

Exactly my point!

How big is "tiny"?  A thimble?  A deck of cards?  A shoebox?

I'll be the first to admit the picture in the article {side view} makes it hard to estimate.

Found this one...gives a rough...but better...idea

from:  https://newatlas.com/mit-thermal-resonator-temperature-changes-electricity/53456/

Unless they left the solar cell connected, the weather station shown requires more than 1.3 milliwatts.  Since the label on the photo states that the unit shown is powering the weather station, it makes it unclear if the unit shown is the one described.

If the unit shown in the photos is the 'tiny' unit described in the text, then it doesn't seem like a very viable technology.

For long term power output, existing technology such as Betavoltaic, Radioisotope thermoelectric generator, etc. can produce power for decades (possibly centuries) in a much smaller package.

Back in 1890, a book was published on how to run and maintain the large locomotive tractors used in farming.

In the book,it claimed small diesel internal combustion engines will never develop the power need for many applications, so the author
claimed the internal combustion engine will never amount to anything.

It is always hard to predict the future....especially electronics....video disc players and Betamax video players......

As far as size goes....