This for example: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Cataratas.jpg
If you don’t want to click the link, it’s the Iguazu Falls, Argentina and Brazil Border.
It’s basically a huge waterfall. To my understanding, it generates enormous amount of potential power, meanwhile every water power station I’ve seen is either flow of river or a dam. Could we not put a water wheel next to the waterfall or something?
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The reason we build dams – and you absolutely could build a dam to exploit the height difference here – is to force the water into a chokepoint to maximise the amount of energy we can get out of it. Similarly building a reservoir at the top means that we’ve got some leeway: We’re not reliant on the natural flow of the waterway, but instead have a nice big pool we can manage the level of so that we can switch on the power generation as and when we need it.
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