A man named Manfred Mornhinweg found the modern world too "noisy and hectic", so he decided to build himself a house on a quiet 40 hectare piece of land in Chile. Part of his project involved building a micro-hydro plant to generate electricity for his dream home, and he documented the DIY adventure on his (very old-school) website. I found it interesting, and though that you might enjoy it too.

Unfortunately, there's no single photo that gives an overview of the whole micro-hydro plant, but this generic drawing gives a good idea of the concept:

United States Department of Energy/Public Domain

Here are a few photos from the project:

This is the outflow from the turbine, where the "poor, tired water" (said tongue-in-cheek, of course -- the water's fine) comes out after doing the hard work of spinning the turbine that generates the electricity.

For the whole thing, visit Ludens.

See also: DIY Backyard solar death ray (Video)