Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2016/s4/3/c/solution

For a generous illustrative roof area 100 m, annual rain depth one metre and five-metre usable fall, maximum potential energy is MJ, only 1.36 kWh per year before conversion losses. Even 25 million roofs give only about 34 GWh annually, around of a 300 TWh electricity system. Tiny intermittent flows and installation embodied energy make the practical result worse. Household roof-rain generation is therefore a very small carbon-saving resource under realistic domestic heights; the small gravitational drop and water flux explain why, without needing to assume an inefficient turbine.

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