[Tesla]

High all, new here.
Have been reading various threads for the last 2 days, drive a 4x4 wagon, will post about that later, but this thread caught my attention.
I have thought about the alternater issue for a long time, but like all mods and life in general, "you get nothing for nothing".
So just some comments re the discussions so far:
1 / The Seebeck cells, I looked at these a while back for other reasons, they generate current using a heat differential, so you not only need a heat source you also need a cold source, if both sides of the cell are close to the same temp, then no current, therein lies the difficulty. Currently I think the technology is where solar cells were 30-40 years ago, more novelty and specialised applications, give them another 10 years or so and we may have something useable.
2 / Driving alternator off other moving parts, or wind flow will be less efficient than the current belt drive.
3 / Useing exhaust to drive turbine alternator is not free, all turbos bog down the engine to some degree, they create more power because more air and fuel is pushed through the cylinders, if you slow the exhaust down too much either with the alternator idea or by cooling the hot gasses too much, then flow backs up, engine bogs down and FE bottoms out.
4 / Electronics still needs to catch up with the eco/renewable sector to be able to process a large number of variable sources and turn them into a standardised useable form, i.e. 12V, I have run dual battery systems and they call them selves state of the art, but they do not have the ability to unify 2 supplies concurrently like alternator and solar cells for instance, all they can do is switch to the dominant source. So trying to recover odd energy losses from the engine is very difficult because none of them match the required criteria most of the time.
As for the alternator disconnect thing I think it's great for those that do mostly short day trips or just occassional driving and can keep the battery charged with a dashboard solar cell. For the rest of us the first steps would be to minimise electrical draw, primarily lights, by using LED's where possible look, consider relevant design regulations, especially with headlights, just because you can buy them don't mean they are legal. I think appropriate systems can be developed easier on large vehicles than small vehicles, because all vehicles need x amount of lighting as it is dependant on the driver being able to see the road, not engine size, so generally as vehicles get bigger, extra batteries are not a burden, but gains are less as an overall percentage, because the alternator burden is less as an overall drain.
My current thinking is, after doing all the electrical demand reduction mods, to leave std alternator system in place, but set up aux battery system that can be charged by solar and begin shifting all high use items over via a secondary fusebox. So switch over starter, thermo fans, lights, ventilation fans, demisters etc. basically leaving original system just for engine management. This way alternator will hardly ever run, original battery will probably last the life of vehicle & if aux is down, flick a switch and let the alternator kick in.
Lots of talk on deep cycle batteries, just remember they are not suitable for rapid discharge like starter motor, thast type of current draw will kill them quick.
Just my 2 cents worth.