The drop of raindrops is bigger than that of the Three Gorges Dam. Can it be used to generate electricity?

Power plants can generate electricity because generators can convert other forms of energy into electric energy, and hydropower stations generate electricity by the gravitational potential energy of water. The drop of the Three Gorges Power Station is about113m. When water falls from such a high position, a large part of the reduced gravitational potential energy is converted into electrical energy.

When raindrops fall from the sky, the height is usually more than a few hundred meters, and some will fall several thousand meters. Can raindrops generate electricity? You can think of a joke about a group of doctors calculating the falling speed of raindrops. If calculated according to the motion of free fall, the speed of raindrops falling to the ground is very large. For example, falling to the ground from a height of 1000 meters at a speed of 140 meters per second is enough to cause harm to people. But in fact, people who get wet don't think raindrops will hurt themselves, because the speed of raindrops falling to the ground is not great at all. The speed at which raindrops land is related to the quality of raindrops. The speed of raindrops with small mass reaching the ground is less than 1 m per second, and the speed of raindrops with large mass generally does not exceed1m per second. Most of the mechanical energy of raindrops has been converted into internal energy by friction with air in the air, and there is little mechanical energy left in raindrops.

Most of the mechanical energy of raindrops is converted into internal energy. Can't we use internal energy to generate electricity? Thermal power plants rely on the thermal energy released by coal combustion to drive the rotor to rotate, and then convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. However, thermal power plants need a heat engine, which can convert internal energy into mechanical energy. Internal energy is difficult to be utilized because it involves the directionality of energy conversion. Mechanical energy is easily converted into internal energy, but internal energy is not easily converted into mechanical energy. The conversion rate of internal energy to mechanical energy will never reach 100%, and it is related to the temperature of high-temperature heat source and low-temperature heat source. Like raindrops falling from the sky, its temperature changes very little, so it is not worth setting a heat engine between heaven and earth to convert the internal energy of raindrops into mechanical energy and then into electrical energy.