When world class athletes from around the globe gather in Vancouver, British Columbia to participate in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games they will be warmed not only by the "spirit of the Olympic games" but also by sewage!

As part of an effort to use sustainable energy sources to power the 2010 Olympic games engineers are applying technology similar in nature to geothermal energy systems that will use "heat exchangers" to extract "waste heat" from the city's sewage.

Although, this technology is currently in use in Japan and Norway, the Reuters wire service story from this week claims that this is the first system of its kind to be used in North America. However, it appears that some fellow Canadians may have rigged up their own sewage heating system first - earlier this month there was an article about an apartment building in Nova Scotia with a heating system fueled by the building's sewage.

This gives a whole new meaning to "natural gas" heat.