  Iron based narrow gap semiconductors such as FeSi, FeSb2, or FeGa3 have
received a lot of attention because they exhibit a large thermopower, as well
as striking similarities to heavy fermion Kondo insulators. Many proposals have
been advanced, however, lacking quantitative methodologies applied to this
problem, a consensus remained elusive to date. Here, we employ realistic
many-body calculations to elucidate the impact of electronic correlation
effects on FeSi. Our methodology accounts for all substantial anomalies
observed in FeSi: the metallization, the lack of conservation of spectral
weight in optical spectroscopy, and the Curie susceptibility. In particular we
find a very good agreement for the anomalous thermoelectric power. Validated by
this congruence with experiment, we further discuss a new physical picture of
the microscopic nature of the insulator-to-metal crossover. Indeed, we find the
suppression of the Seebeck coefficient to be driven by correlation induced
incoherence. Finally, we compare FeSi to its iso-structural and iso-electronic
homologue RuSi, and predict that partially substituted Fe(1-x)Ru(x)Si will
exhibit an increased thermopower at intermediate temperatures.
