System advantages are:
- No communities or land use near streams destroyed or disturbed,
- Unlimited head, yet water is not pressurized,
- Harmless to fish,
- No dams, no canals, no flumes, no tunnels, no pen stocks, no turbine generators,
- Low cost, high efficiency,
- With major water quality and quantity improvement,
- With high profit potential suitable for private ownership and operation
A maglev conveyor, as described for transportation of bulk materials below, can be reversed and used as an electrodynamic generator. Hydroelectric power is generated when the intake of a maglev conveyor carrying water is located at a higher elevation than its outlet. Linear induction generators placed along the way convert the water’s freed potential energy into electricity.
US Patent 4,024,947, “Bulk Material Conveyor” & US Patent 6,301,736, “Elevated Suspended Guideway.”