  We show that work can be extracted from a two-level system (spin) coupled to
a bosonic thermal bath. This is possible due to different initial temperatures
of the spin and the bath, both positive (no spin population inversion) and is
realized by means of a suitable sequence of sharp pulses applied to the spin.
The extracted work can be of the order of the response energy of the bath,
therefore much larger than the energy of the spin. Moreover, the efficiency of
extraction can be very close to its maximum, given by the Carnot bound, at the
same time the overall amount of the extracted work is maximal. Therefore, we
get a finite power at efficiency close to the Carnot bound.
  The effect comes from the backreaction of the spin on the bath, and it
survives for a strongly disordered (inhomogeneously broadened) ensemble of
spins. It is connected with generation of coherences during the work-extraction
process, and we derived it in an exactly solvable model. All the necessary
general thermodynamical relations are derived from the first principles of
quantum mechanics and connections are made with processes of lasing without
inversion and with quantum heat engines.
