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Bolts of lightning. Electricity for everybody. 1907.

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"Scientists in Singapore have broken a long-standing limitation on the ability to generate electricity from flowing water, suggesting that another elemental force of nature could be leveraged for renewable electricity: rain.

With the simplest and smallest scale test setup, the team could power around 12 LED lightbulbs with simulated rain droplets flowing through a tube, but at scale, their method could generate meaningful amounts that could rival rooftop solar arrays.

Singapore experiences significant rainfall throughout the year, averaging 101 inches (2581 millimeters) of precipitation annually. The idea of generating electricity from such falling water is attractive, but the method has long been constrained by a principle called the Debye Length.

Nevertheless, the concept is possible because of a simple physical principle that charged entities on the surface of materials get nudged when they rub together—as true for water droplets as it is for a balloon rubbed against the hair on one’s head.

While this is true, the power values thus generated have been negligible, and electricity from flowing water has been limited to the driving of turbines in hydropower plants.

However, in a study published in the journal ACS Central Science, a team of physicists has found a way to break through the constraints of water’s Debye Length, and generate power from simulated rain.

“Water that falls through a vertical tube generates a substantial amount of electricity by using a specific pattern of water flow: plug flow,” says Siowling Soh, author of the study. “This plug flow pattern could allow rain energy to be harvested for generating clean and renewable electricity.”

The authors write in their study that in existing tests of the power production from water flows, pumps are always used to drive liquid through the small channels. But the pumps require so much energy to run that outputs are limited to miniscule amounts.

Instead, their setup to harness this plug flow pattern was scandalously simple. No moving parts or mechanisms of any kind were required. A simple plastic tube just 2 millimeters in diameter; a large plastic bottle; a small metallic needle. Water coming out of the bottle ran along the needle and bumped into the top section of the tube that had been cut in half, interrupting the water flow and allowing pockets of air to slide down the tube along with the water.

The air was the key to breaking through the limits set by the Debye Length, and key to the feasibility of electricity generation from water. Wires placed at the top of the tube and in the cup harvested the electricity.

The total generation rate of greater than 10% resulted in about 100 watts per square meter of tube. For context, a 100-watt solar panel can power an appliance as large as a blender or ceiling fan, charge a laptop, provide for several light bulbs, or even a Wi-Fi router.

Because the droplet speeds tested were much slower than rain, the researchers suggest that the real thing would provide even more than their tests, which were of course on a microscale."

Restoring electricity is the top priority, since nearly everything depends on it.

Cell phones aren't working, not even landlines, and there's no Wi-Fi either. There are no traffic lights, no trains, and no metro service. People have been trapped for hours in elevators and on trains. Hospitals are struggling to keep their backup generators running. Airports are at a standstill, and travelers can't even book hotels, leaving them stranded.

Nearly all the stores are closed because cash registers (and security system) won't work without electricity, so people can't buy food, candles, batteries, or even gasoline. Some people can't even access ATMs, and without cash on hand, they're fucked. And of course, food is spoiling in homes, stores, and restaurants, and with no way to heat it, many are being forced to eat it cold.

I can only imagine how much worse it would be if this had happened during extreme winter or summer temperatures, when staying warm or cool would be critical.

This situation really shows how unprepared most people are if something even worse were to happen. It's not a big deal if the power is out for an hour or two, but 10+ hours? That's a different story. This is why it's so important to have an emergency bag or stash. Make sure it includes a first-aid kit, flashlights, candles, fire starters, blankets, canned food, and water — along with a portable radio, ideally one that charges by solar power or a hand crank instead of only batteries.