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Energy From Raindrops
conlaw writes to share that according to Discovery.com scientists have found a way to extract energy from rain. A new technique could utilize piezoelectric principles of a special kind of plastic to generate power from falling water in rainstorms or even commercial air conditioners. "The method relies on a plastic called PVDF (for polyvinylidene difluoride), which is used in a range of products from pipes, films, and wire insulators to high-end paints for metal. PVDF has the unusual property of piezoelectricity, which means it can produce a charge when it's mechanically deformed."
You are quite wrong, treadmills have been used in the past to power all sorts of things. Here is an example:
http://www.uic.edu/aa/college/gallery400/notions/histories.htm
"The hospital of Bicêtre, France boasts a prodigiously deep well underneath, dating from 1735. The horizontal wheel that pumped the water was turned
initially by twelve horses, then, starting in 1781, by 72 men, taking shifts on a 24 hr day. These workers were eventually replaced by epileptic
patients and "madmen" in residence at the hospital."
I would also challenge the notion that fluorinated plastics can be produced energy efficiently enough to actually produce an energy surplus by collecting raindrops. I might be wrong
though, but out of laziness I'll leave the proof to somebody else.
Je me souviens.