In this paper, a novel thermoelectric assisted indirect evaporative cooling system is proposed. Specifically, thermoelectric cooling (TEC) modules are sandwiched between channels of a flat plate cross flow indirect evaporative cooler. A mathematical model of the novel system is developed, and influences of main operating and geometrical parameters on the system's performance are analyzed in detail. Analytical results show that with the assistance of the thermoelectric cooling, the proposed system is able to cool primary air to a temperature much lower than inlet air wet bulb temperature, even dew point temperature, meanwhile keep a relatively high coefficient of performance (COP), by selecting appropriate number and electric current of TEC modules. The dew point effectiveness and COP of the proposed system change monotonously with inlet mass flow rate, temperature and humidity ratio of primary air, respectively. The dew point effectiveness also varies monotonously with the mass flow rate ratio of secondary air to primary air. However, there exists an optimal mass flow rate ratio resulting in a maximum COP. Moreover, under variable number and electric current of TEC modules, there always exist optimal widths of primary air channel and secondary air channel, leading to a maximum COP. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.