_{In a study featured in Smart Materials and Structures, a physics journal, the authors, Romain Guigon, Thomas Jager, Ghislain Despesse and Jean-Jacques Chaillout, write about how it is possible to recover energy from the impact of a raindrop of water. To measure such energy, they built a rain catcher which would allow them to control the amount of water falling on top of a piezoelectric material, in this case made out of polyvinylidene fluoride. A piezoelectric material is a material that is able to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy (see here, and here for other examples where this material was used). Their findings were interesting: slow falling droplets produce more energy than high falling droplets, and as you’d expect, the larger the water droplet, the more energy that was generated.}

_{As for the total amount of power that was recovered? Not much at the moment. Their simulations showed how 1 droplet can generate anywhere between 1 microwatt and 12 milliwatts. What does this mean overall? It is expected that for every square meter of surface, the process could generate about 1 watt-hour per year. This is definitely not going to power your Ipod anytime soon, but there is ample room for progress. After all, piezoelectric materials are still a fairly new technology.}

_{An outlandish idea which at the moment seems unable to produce any significant amount of power? sure! Then again, they did say that about solar power at some point.}

_(Inhabitat)