The technology is nascent: it can only convert 6.5% of the power it captures.

Although rainy conditions are considered adverse to the solar energy industry, researchers from China have harnessed it to be an ally.

They have developed a technology for a new kind of solar cell wherein it is coated by an atom-thick graphene layer that harvests raindrops as they fall on the solar cells, making even the gloomiest and wettest day work for mankind.

This has become possible because of a property of graphene which allows water to stick to itself thus creating a natural sort of a capacitor. The basic principle behind this idea is that with water sticking to graphene layer, it creates a sharp difference in energy between the graphene’s electrons and the water’s ions, thereby producing electricity.

However, this solution comes with a catch, the technology being nascent isn’t very efficient: so far it can only convert 6.5% of the energy it captures, which pales in comparison to the 22% of the world’s best solar panels.

The scientists are chipping away at a solution that significantly improves this graphene coated solar cell technology, which has the hallmarks of being a very promising solution to wean mankind away from polluting carbon power technologies.