Storm energy

This week a huge storm was blowing through the Netherlands. In the fall there is quite some bad weather in the Netherlands normally. Wind blowing and a lot of rain dropping down on us. This is a lot of energy the Earths system is showing us. Thinking from a sustainable perspective, you would want to get a hold of this energy for our electricity needs. For instance the wind should drive the windmills to generate a lot of electricity. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. Windmills stop working above a certain wind speed, because there is a danger the blades will come down. All the rain coming down holds a lot of energy as well. You can see that when you go to a stream or river, like the Rijn. This large mass of water constantly passing through our rivers has so much kinetic energy. Again, we are not able to harvest this. The way to get energy from this could be some piëzo-electrical system, where the pressure of the water on the river bottom creates electricity. The problem with both these examples is the possibilities are there, but the technological challenges are so large that research into these technologies is very expensive. Unfortunately, these technologies will not be economically interesting until fossil fuels will become more scarce and therefore more expensive. This is the problem with most sustainability projects. The only thing we can do for now is to just enjoy the power of nature.