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0 pointskonschubert2y ago0 comments

A factor 3 doesn’t compensate a factor 1000

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4 comments · 1 top-level

willcipriano2y ago· 3 in thread

There is a sort of reverse time value of money[0] but for energy. When it's raining, it's often cloudy so solar isn't as efficient and the cost of energy goes up. Things like this become more attractive under certain conditions and I could see a use as the technology is improved and commercialized. Energy is never going to be a single technology, we will probably end up with dozens of sources in the end.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_value_of_money

stephen_g2y ago

It's good to think outside the box, but unfortunately the theoretical amount of energy available (that others have calculated in the comments here) just make it a non-starter.

For comparison, even on the rainiest day I've measured in the last year from my 6.6 kW photovoltaic array on my house, I made 8 kWh of energy (on a good summer's day I get around 40 kWh), with the lowest output across most of the day being 450W (less at sunrise and sunset obviously).

Other have posted calculations of the maximum energy that can be expected to be collected from raindrops, and from those calculations, I doubt that with a raindrop capture device as large as my PV array you could make 8 kWh in a month.

Brusco_RF2y ago

Even the most optimistic reading has these "rain panels" well under 1W/m^2. For comparison, peak solar irradiance is something like 1400W/m^2.

This webpage has already burned more energy than that panel will ever produce.

ilyt2y ago

Right. So mount a wind turbine instead of this garbage

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