Sure you can. As long as overall entropy increases, you're AOK.
Imagine a thought experiment not too dissimilar. You have a bike, that you pedal up to speed. You then let yourself slow to a stop naturally. All the energy you put in goes to heat.
Then you do the same again, pedal the bike up to speed, but this time you click a dynamo (attached to a battery) into place and let yourself stop naturally. This time some of the energy is converted to heat, and some into energy in the battery.
It the same principle of hydro electric power. You can let water just move down some tunnels from high to low gravitational potential energy (GPE -> water velocity), or you can put some turbines in the way.
Imagine a thought experiment not too dissimilar. You have a bike, that you pedal up to speed. You then let yourself slow to a stop naturally. All the energy you put in goes to heat.
Then you do the same again, pedal the bike up to speed, but this time you click a dynamo (attached to a battery) into place and let yourself stop naturally. This time some of the energy is converted to heat, and some into energy in the battery.
It the same principle of hydro electric power. You can let water just move down some tunnels from high to low gravitational potential energy (GPE -> water velocity), or you can put some turbines in the way.