Energy from the air?  How very Tesla of you!   But unlike America's favorite quirky inventor, this isn't transmitted power and no dogs have to die.    It's using moisture from the air - and the more humidity you have the better.

Similar to the way solar cells capture sunlight, hygroelectric collectors would collect moisture and use it to light a house or recharge an electric car.   Bonus: Panels on the rooftops of buildings could prevent lightning strikes - and the technology is already in the early stages of development.

Scientists once believed that water droplets in the atmosphere were electrically neutral and remained so even after coming into contact with the electrical charges on dust particles and droplets of other liquids. But new evidence suggests that water in the atmosphere picks up an electrical charge.

It may also help explain a 200-year-old scientific riddle about how electricity is produced and discharged in the atmosphere. 

Study leader Fernando Galembeck in the Department of Physical Chemistry at University of Campinas (Brazil) confirmed it using laboratory experiments that simulated water's contact with dust particles in the air. They used tiny particles of silica and aluminum phosphate, both common airborne substances, showing that silica became more negatively charged in the presence of high humidity and aluminum phosphate became more positively charged.

Just as solar cells work best in sunny areas of the world, he said hygroelectrical panels would work more efficiently in areas with high humidity, such as the northeastern and southeastern United States and the humid tropics.

"Our research could pave the way for turning electricity from the atmosphere into an alternative energy source for the future," said Galembeck.  "Just as solar energy could free some households from paying electric bills, this promising new energy source could have a similar effect."