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Pennies from Heaven?

I often speak to businesses and associations in the electrical utility industry and in the past few years I have addressed the National Rural Electric Association’s Emerging Technology Conference, as well as organizations in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota. When doing so, I am always sure to update industry member on the latest advances in solar, geothermal, wind, biofuels, clean coal, synthetic biology and nuclear power. The one area I have not addressed—only because I was unaware of it until today—was the possibility that in the future rain might be a source of energy.

According to this article, researchers are now learning how to convert the mechanical energy from falling raiddrops into electricity. The technology is years away from being a practical source of large-scale energy, but I’m more interested in one short-term application: the ability to use raindrops to power sensor networks.

It is well-known that Intel and other companies are exploring the wide-scale use of outdoor sensor networks. The problem to date, though, has been figuring out how to keep the devices’ batteries powered over long-term periods of time. If, however, rain could be used to add a little juice to the sensors, it is possible that such sensor networks could become more practical. One of the things these sensors could do is monitor the status of the existing electric grid—and that is something in which everyone in the energy industry is interested.

So while I don’t think that massive rain-power plants are in the long-term forecast, I do think some innovative companies might be able to figure out how to transform those rainsdrops into pennies from heaven by ensuring the grid is operating at peak efficiency.

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Jack Uldrich is a writer, futurist, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. He is also a frequent speaker on future technology and future trends, nanotechnology, innovation, change management and executive leadership to a variety of businesses, industries and non-profit organizations and trade associations.

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