When a power plant or other industry creates a product, often much energy is disappated as heat. Not only would that heat help on a cooooold day like today, but that heat can be used as power, especially if it's particularly hot. The Maximum efficency of an engine is determined by the ratio of the heat sink to the cold sink. The heat sink is basically the hot spot, the cold sink is the temperature of outside air. On a normal day if the hot spot is 500F, the maximum efficency is 50% at 1100F the maximum efficency is 70%. The Stirling engine is designed to get this energy from air, it could be modified to get it from other sources, yet from what I've read on the net, it's not being used nearly as much as it could be. Once the heat is too degraded to use a Sterling engine cost effectively, it could be piped into people's homes. Please talk to your city councils, county boards etc. about this idea.