/learn/publications/b/blog/posts/thermoelectric-material-absorbing-all-waste-heatMaterials Engineering is a particularly important field in electronics, but often overlooked by the media. It is always about the next big product, the software update, peripherals. A paralleled amount of engineering work went into what makes u...en-USTelligent Community 12https://community.element14.com/learn/publications/b/blog/posts/thermoelectric-material-absorbing-all-waste-heatFri, 06 May 2011 22:41:56 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:b78ecbc5-460a-4ab2-ba2a-7a2749adc1b0DAB0<p>It has always puzzled me why all power plants did not have thermal electric devices attached to turn the waste heat into additional energy.&nbsp; It is amazing when you start adding up all of the wasted energy used across the world to generate power.&nbsp; I think the true efficiency is about 20% for all heat based systems.&nbsp; I am not sure if wind or hydro plants waste as much, but before we go around making radical changes to human behavior, we should first conduct a comprehensive analysis on all of the POWER we WASTE every day.&nbsp; I suspect the answer will amaze everyone.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Thanks,</p><p>DAB</p><img src="https://community.element14.com/aggbug?PostID=12597&AppID=45&AppType=Weblog&ContentType=0" width="1" height="1">