development of solar thermal and piezoelectric hybrid generator

[faizarbain]

hello,

i just finished my final year project on developing solar thermal and piezoelectric generator. the basic of this project are i just use a series combination of photovoltaic panel, thermoelectric module and piezoelectric disc to get the output voltage.

the problem that i encountered while doing this project is my output voltage for the piezoelectric disc always shows the negative value. so my question is why it happen?
it makes me difficult to get the total output for the voltage.

i heard from my friends telling me that the voltage for the piezoelectric is so small. therefore the piezoelectric will become load. is that true?

 

[Sceadwian]

Yep pretty much. It takes some pretty expansive hardware to get any useful energy out of piezo electrics.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

If he's just 'finished' his FYP, then surely he's independently tested the performance of each individual source, and should know EXACTLY what's each is capable of?.