Question Electrical generation using river water

[JHawthorne]

In the 1800's gold rush, miners used a technique called "hydraulic mining". It was a destructive way to blast the banks of a river to expose gold. The pressure was created by pipes that gradually got smaller in diameter, so as the water flowed downstream, the pressure increased more and more. My question is, could this same principle be used, using larger pipes, to power a turbine, that would in turn power a generator and produce electricity? Same concept of generating with a dam, but without the dam. The water exiting the turbine could then be re-used in the same way to power another turbine further downstream.

 

[Debed]

In the 1800's gold rush, miners used a technique called "hydraulic mining". It was a destructive way to blast the banks of a river to expose gold. The pressure was created by pipes that gradually got smaller in diameter, so as the water flowed downstream, the pressure increased more and more. My question is, could this same principle be used, using larger pipes, to power a turbine, that would in turn power a generator and produce electricity? Same concept of generating with a dam, but without the dam. The water exiting the turbine could then be re-used in the same way to power another turbine further downstream.

We already do this with run-of-river hydroelectric power stations.