In an experiment, one tube produced 440 microwatts. When the researchers used four tubes at once, they could power 12 LEDs for 20 seconds.
In an experiment, one tube produced 440 microwatts. When the researchers used four tubes at once, they could power 12 LEDs for 20 seconds.
Ok so this plus dams equals more efficient dams. What’s the issue
The issue is that it’s a waste of resources. A dam is harnessing energy from the rainfall over hundreds to thousands of square miles of land area. So the resources required to build it, even though large, are very efficiently used over decades of use.
A tiny system uses orders of magnitude less materials but harvests many orders of magnitude less power. A tiny system probably isn’t going to ever generate more energy than it took to manufacture.
Systems like this are at best a novelty. We need to all be wary of greenwashed scams, and this is one of them.
Tiny energy sources have a niche to fill. Think about the minuscule solar panels that power calculators, for instance; that tiny little 0.02W solar cell might be useless for broad-scale deployment, but if you’re instead looking to provide energy to something small and specific in a niche situation, it can be really useful.
I know this article is talking about deploying this on a house scale, and I even bought into that idea (or, rather, a larger one) in a previous comment; but you’re right, this is unlikely to be a good use of resources.
Instead, what about deploying this as the power source for a remote meteorological test rig deep in a rainforest? When the rain falls, it gathers energy to make its measurements, stores some in a battery, and transmits its findings.
Or perhaps deploying it for a small community in a monsoon area which doesn’t rely on much electricity but still needs it for communication in case of emergency. Having a wind, solar, and rain energy collector on it, all feeding a battery, could allow them to have access to emergency services when they otherwise wouldn’t (or when it would otherwise be difficult).
I’m just saying, energy diversification is a good thing.