Quantum wells as a power source

In a story at Physics.org, a thermoelectric energy collector is described using quantum wells.

These little gadgets take heat from the air, turn it into electricity, and can power smaller electronics without any other outside input.

This would be interesting anyway, but the similarity to John Galt’s machine in Atlas Shrugged is really intriguing. Galt’s machine somehow extracts static electricity from the atmosphere in quantities large enough to power a household–Ayn Rand never explains the physics, of course.

Quantum well or quantum dot devices may never generate that amount of power, but the application to electronics may be profound. Imagine the heat from the processor and circuits being converted back into electricity to power the device, and cooling the device at the same time.

This artistic drawing of the proposed quantum well energy harvester shows the central hot region in red, the quantum wells in green, and the cold electrodes in blue. Credit: Bjӧrn Sothmann, et al.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-10-scientists-quantum-wells-high-power-easy-to-make.html#jCp