This idea was posted on Saturday, January 12, 2008.

Contrary to the popular misconception, a dam isn't required to provide water for a hydroelectric generator.  How, you ask, are you going to get the water high enough up into the air to make it fall through the turbine?  Use an aqueduct.  How, you ask, are you going to get the water to flow uphill, out of the river, into the aqueduct?  Here's how, stupid.

The upstream end of the aqueduct must be a long way upstream from where you want the hydroelectric generator to be.  Exactly how far upstream depends on the terrain.  However far that is, the upstream end of the aqueduct must be in the middle of the river and at the river's bottom, right down on the river bed.

The aqueduct must extend downstream, following the course of the river, under water.  The slope of the aqueduct must be just sufficient for water to flow in the aqueduct.  That will be less slope than the slope of the river bed.  Thus, the further downstream the aqueduct is from its upstream end, the further above the river bed it will be.  Eventually, far enough downstream, it will be above the surface of the river.  Nevertheless, it will still have water in it because water will have flowed along the aqueduct from its upstream end, where it was below water level.  Even further downstream, the aqueduct will be way up above the surface of the river and still full of water.  All you have to do is dump the water out of the end of the aqueduct and into your turbine.  It's such a simple idea, why didn't you think of it?

There are a good many advantages to using an aqueduct instead of a dam.  For example, if the aqueduct breaks, then the water just falls back into the river.  It doesn't destroy everything for miles downstream.  It also doesn't destroy everything for miles upstream, the way that a reservoir does.  Another advantage is that an aqueduct doesn't obstruct the progress of fish.  They can simply swim up the river in the water that didn't find its way into the aqueduct.  In fact, and aqueduct will satisfy every purpose of a dam except for one.  It won't store water for use later.

The aqueduct can also be used to supply irrigation water, during seasons of adequate flow.  All you need is branches off of the side.  It can be designed with section that can be dropped in an emergency to redirect flow back down into the river.  Water can be transferred into small privately owned reservoirs and saved for use during dry season.  The possibilities are almost endless and none of them require the huge and dangerous reservoirs that are formed behind large dams.