In many countries around the world, falling water is a significant power source. The only requirement being a mountain and regular rainfalls. Some investments are required upfront but during their lifespan the produced electricity is cheap. Norway has a century long history of taming it's waterfalls which has given the population and industry vast amounts of inexpensive electricity. However, with the systems operating and the world in need of more energy, is there anything we can do to increase the efficiency - if only a small bit?
Two properties of many mountainous areas spring to mind - they are windy and cold. The coldness might not be too useful except as a condenser in a thermal engine. The wind, however, could be set to work. I imagine a rough wind turbine connected to the inlet of the hydropower pipelines. Instead of generating power directly they would provide additional speed or pressure to the water in the pipes. With the infrastructure already in place - the wind turbines shouldn't add significant complexity. It would end up being a hybrid hydropower facility.
From my understanding of the physics at hand, pipe loss is an significant energy waster. As the water is moving, the friction at the pipe walls are absorbing some of the joules originally available. A system that can increase the pressure, and reduce the speed might contribute to reduce this drag and increase efficiency - by more than the amount provided directly. Note: For this to be verified - we need to ask someone who actually knows fluid flow physics!
When it comes to rough wind collector systems, I have an idea that might get posted later.
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