REAL LIFE NEWS: SOLAR PANELS COULD HARVEST ENERGY FROM RAINDROPS
by Hazed
One of the problems with solar panels is that they rely on the weather being sunny – the clue is in the name, after all! That makes them not totally efficient in the UK where it rains all the bloody time.
But a new type of panel built from highly-conductive graphene could harvest energy from the rain.
The graphene uses the impurities in rainwater, particularly salts. When the material gets wet it binds positively charged ions with its electrons, in sufficient numbers to produce a charge and a current.
The inventors hope their concept will help guide the design of advanced all-weather solar cells.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/12/graphene_solar_panels_harvest_energy_from_rain/