Electric rain? Solar panel turns raindrops into power

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/04/11/electric-rain-solar-panel-turns-raindrops-into-power.html

Scientists in China have developed an innovative solar panel technology that could turn raindrops into electric power.

The new solar cell design, which can be “triggered” by both rain and sun, is described in a paper published in the Angewandte Chemie journal.

“All-weather solar cells are promising in solving the energy crisis,” explain the scientists from Ocean University of China and Yunnan Normal University, noting that the technology combines an electron-enriched graphene electrode with a dye-sensitized solar cell. “The new solar cell can be excited by incident light on sunny days and raindrops on rainy days,” they add.

Dye-sensitized solar cells are thin-film photovoltaic cells that harness organic dye to absorb sunlight and produce electrons, thereby creating energy.