Seite - 33 - in Our Car as Power Plant

33 Nowadays we realize that the energy efficiencies for these systems are low, that using fossil fuels is not forever and their use can have considerable environmental impact. Therefore a sustainable energy system needs to be realized: a system with a better energy efficiency and using renew- able energy. There have been many developments in the energy sector and the efficiencies in conversion-, distribution- and end-use technologies have improved considerably. Not only in technology but also in systems we see major efficiency improvements. For example in electricity power plants we produce electricity but also a lot of heat, which is gener- ally ‘thrown away’ in surface water or the air. Nowadays we try to use the waste heat from our power plants for heating purposes and therefore many cogeneration power plants have been realized. Also industrial waste heat is used for other heating purposes or even to produce some electricity. So we try to integrate the power system with the heating and cooling system.