News Physics

Here’s how we might generate electricity from rain

In one experiment, dripping water continuously powered 12 LED lightbulbs

A photo shows raindrops falling on a shingle roof.

Raindrops falling into narrow tubes might offer a clean source of electrical energy, new experiments suggest.

Willowpix/Getty Images

By Jude Coleman

Read another version of this article at Science News Explores

A new way of generating clean power could run your lights with rain. 

Hydropower typically relies on the movement of water to create electricity through mechanical energy, such as spinning turbines in a dam. But a new method, described April 16 in ACS Central Science, skips the mechanics and harnesses tiny bursts of energy sparked when rain plunks into a narrow tube. 

“There is a lot of energy in rain,” says Siowling Soh, an engineer at the National University of Singapore. “If we can tap into this vast amount of energy, we can move toward a more sustainable society.”