Nano-engineered thermoelectrics enable scalable, compressor-free cooling

So it's a better Peltier element? The article only seems to compare it to existing thermoelectric devices and not standard refrigeration units so I'm going to assume they haven't gotten even close to that efficiency. If they had I would assume they wouldn't shut up about the fact.

Also one of the biggest if not the biggest downside of these chips is, unlike a split refrigeration circuit, the front gets cold while the back gets hot which means you can't move the heat very far.

> can't move the heat very far.

Heat pipes (as in CPU heatsinks) can passively move the heat up to a feet away. Far enough to allow effective insulation between cold and hot side. From there you can move the heat further away with a fan.

Heat pipes only reduce the thermal resistance between 2 points. They cannot cool something below ambient temperature.

Thermoelectric coolers do not compete with heat pipes. They are useful only when you want to obtain a temperature lower than the ambient temperature. Otherwise, heat pipes or liquid flow cooling are the right solutions.