From time to time, I get certain BRAIN WAVES and I start thinking OUT OF THE BOX. O.K. this time, I have just thought OUT OF THE HOUSE - Generating electricity using rotary turbines and small generators, during rainy days.
Basically, the sun heats up the sea-water and some of it evaporates to form clouds. These clouds contain a lot of potential energy which is released as kinetic energy (rain). That kinetic energy is all ours to take advantage of! Solar energy and wind energy based generation methods work with reduced efficiency during rains and hence we might look to compliment our electricity generation using ideas like these, during rainy days (which - at times - can extend to many hours/many days at a stretch).
The above diagram shows a rain, house, window, window shade and a rotary turbine fixed at the edge of the window shade. It should be fixed as shown above, exposing one side to rain and the other side below the sunshade. Since rain water falls only on one side (the open side), two blades on that side get pushed by rain water and the turbine starts rotating. As long as the rain continues, this device can generate electricity.
The limitation is, we can only generate small amounts of electricity using such a set-up and hence we may need multiple such turbines to produce any considerable amount of electricity. We need to have low-cost generators in order for this fantasy to become a practicality. All these turbines (attached to generators) can be connected to a battery, where electricity is stored. Now, all you need to do is wait for the rains and you can start generating electricity!
I have also come up with another method of using rain water to generate electricity. In the above diagram, notice that there is a two-story building and a terrace above it. The rain water collected in the terrace is generally allowed to flow into the ground/rain water harvesting pit to recharge the ground water. But, when the rain water flows down, it contains a certain amount of kinetic energy, which can be utilized to generate electricity.
In this case, the storm water pipe is cut to introduce a rotary turbine. When rain water flows through it, it turns the blades of the turbine and flows down. Since the water flows only on one side of the turbine, the blades keep rotating in the anti-clockwise direction. We can have another/more rotary turbines, below, to generate more electricity. The enclosure should be closed to ensure that water doesn't go out it should be sloped in the bottom to send the water to the pipe. Both the turbine/generator and the enclosure could be fixed to the wall.
That's it - we've got one more way of generating electricity from rain-water! Of course, these are all only ideas and no one has made such devices (I think).
I don't know what kind of turbines/blades/generators to use with this set-up or how much all that will cost. This is just an open-source idea - anyone can try to expand it further or try to create a working prototype.
Would you bet on this idea getting a noble prize? Don't!! :P
If you have any (proper) ideas on generating electricity using renewable sources of energy, let me know - solarwindhydroenergy[at]gmail[dot]com. I'll feature it on this site, if I like it. And don't worry too much - your ideas can't be sillier than the ideas I have presented above :)
