Thank you for the feedback! The information in the first paragraph was based mostly on my interpretation of the MIT Technology Review article that I referenced in the first section.
I don't mean to downplay their efforts at all - they have done tremendous work to further the impact of solar technology as you point out.
I mostly wanted to present the idea of using small scale hydroelectric power generation as a possibility to help the storage of renewable power and some background on why this is needed. Batteries and other methods of storage, or long distance distribution of power, can be very wasteful and cause additional environmental issues.
Thank you for the information and presentation of the idea. Hydro is the most production perfect form of renewable energy. If only is were more available.