"Several hundred" 5 meter turbines...anchored in concrete on the bottom...5-10MW sounds very expensive, very economically inefficient, very hazardous/vulnerable to navigation, fishing, or whatever.
Also, if it is the East River, they better have screens to catch the bodies, so the chains and cement overshoes don't damage the equipment.
The best use sounded like recovering some of the enery of the California aquaducts' flow, to put back into the pumping stations.
Next, they'll be telling us we should put hydraulic rams everywhere, to pump water 'for free' to the top of a hill, so it can flow back down to a turbine at the bottom to generate 'free electricity'. With enough of these along our waterways....
JUST BUILD A FEW NEW NUKE PLANTS and be done with it.
Well, you're right. But there are some hobbyists here who daydream of personal energy sustainability--it's not just enviro-nuts. It's backwoodsmen (women) nuts...