Ever since man developed from the agrarian age to the industrial age, his primal scream has been the same, “ENERGY!!!” The need for energy has never been higher than it is at present, specifically electric energy or electricity. In the modern era, man derives his ever-growing electricity needs from two primary sources. The first is the burning of fossil fuels like coal to convert water into steam. The steam moves through a turbine supplying power to an electric generator. The second is the conversion of flowing water whose kinetic energy is used to rotate a hydraulic turbine powering a generator. As we become more and more technologically advanced, there are two main problems with these traditional sources of power. One of the limitations is location-specific and the other is supply-specific, “Neither of these traditional methods lends itself very readily to supplying power to satellites in orbit about Mars or other remote locations. Furthermore, man is also beginning to realize that the earth’s fossil fuel supply is finite, its water power restricted to a few geographical areas, and that he must start now to look for new methods of converting thermal, radiant, and mechanical energy to electricity” . This analysis will examine direct energy conversion, or the new methods being utilized to convert energy to electricity, like thermoelectricity, photovoltaics, magnetohydrodynamics and fuel cells. A history of direct energy conversion (DEC) and DEC systems will be addressed before rendering an in-depth analysis of three main DEC methods: solar energy; fuel cells; thermoelectric conversion. A conclusion will discuss the future direction of DEC.
At the present time there are five main methods of direct energy conversion: thermoelectricity; photovoltaics; thermionics; magnetohydrodynamics; fuel cells. One of the first and the most natural methods of direct energy conversion known to man was the electric eel. The ee...