That's for a turbine setup. We need to do the math on a kind of rain powered flow battery instead. And it doesn't need to offset grid power, just handle cases where hookup is inconvenient and solar is off the table.
Great question. You can get some really pronounced rain erosion grooves and patterns on limestone, I wonder if this effect is part of the story, or if it's just normal dissolving going on.
Water-driven electrostatic generators are really easy to build. The key is to have droplets separate at a point where there's an electric field, which causes the detaching droplet to carry a charge. Properly arranged this can cause an exponential increase in charge with time.
The stone erosion question is interesting. If this effect works on limestone too, it could explain some geological formations we've been attributing purely to chemical weathering. Might be a whole new field of research
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[ 0.24 ms ] story [ 25.3 ms ] threadIt might be a useful effect for small electronics in damp environments where solar isn't a great option. Caves, rainforests, showers.
In short it won't be. Less than $100 in a century during the highest recorded rainfall in the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin_water_dropper
- smart band (smartwatch startup)
- gang (or band) of four (s/w engg. startup)
- pink sting (rock music startup)
- hard times or hard wear (hardware device startup - oops, no)
(straight to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y-9GbsS9Fg)