ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION FROM LOW GRADE HEAT OF SALINITY GRADIENT SOLAR POND USING THERMOELECTRIC GENERATORS Baljit Singh 1, 2,* , Fairuz Remeli 1, 2 , Amandeep Oberoi 1 , Lippong Tan 1 , Abhijit Date 1 , Aliakbar Akbarzadeh 1 1 Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy (EnergyCARE) Group School of Aerospace Mechanical Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia 2 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. * Corresponding author email: s3350549@student.rmit.edu.au Abstract Salinity gradient solar pond is capable of storing heat at temperature up to 90 0 C. The temperature difference between the upper convective zone and lower convective zone of a salinity gradient solar pond can be in the range of 40 to 60 0 C. Low grade heat (<100 0 C) from solar pond is currently converted into electricity by organic rankine cycle engines. Organic rankine cycle engines require certain threshold to operate as the organic fluid generally boils at more than 50 0 C, and this organic fluid fails to operate at a temperature lower than 50 0 C. Thermoelectric generators can operate at very low temperature differences and can be a good candidate to replace organic rankine cycle engines for power generation. The temperature difference in a solar pond can be used to power thermoelectric generators for electricity production. This paper presents an experimental investigation of a thermoelectric generators system designed to be powered by the hot water from the lower convective zone of the solar pond, and cold water from the upper convective zone of the solar pond. The proposed system is capable of producing electricity even on cloudy days or at night as the salinity gradient solar pond acts as a thermal storage system. The results obtained have indicated significant prospects of such system to generate power from a low grade heat for remote area power supply systems. Keywords- Solar pond; Thermoelectric generator; Renewable energy; Power generation. 1. INTRODUCTION Renewable energy is becoming an important source of energy due to the rise in crude oil prices and the increase in the greenhouse effects due to the burning of fossil fuels. Most of our electricity is generated by the fossil fuels. These types of fuels are Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Conference, Australian Solar Energy Society (Australian Solar Council) Melbourne May 2014 ISBN: 948-0-646-92219-5