June 9, 2010 source: ZDNet GreenTech Pastures
[S]ome greentech companies [are] exploring the idea of how to use the heat created by your computers and mobile gadgets and feed it back into keeping them running for longer.
Alphabet Energy, is engaged in this idea. It's goal is to create chips that you would add to anything from appliances to an automobile to help harvest the waste heat and make sure its not wasted. The technology was born out of the founder's work at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Alphabet Energy just snagged an additional $1 million in funding in early May from Claremont Creek Ventures (CCV) and the CalCEF Clean Energy Angel Fund.
You can read more about this technology in the UC Berkeley article Thermoelectrics: A matter of material by Rachael Shafer, June 5, 2010