... in a message from the dish network that was sent to me today told me that I will also need to install a lightening rod for the protection of things and my house.
Does a power house building draw static electricity? I have never thought of needing a lightening rod for the house or power house. But it sounds like a good idea.
Lightning tends to strike where the electrical field intensity is strongest.
That tends to mean things higher than their surroundings (imaging an upside-down squatty ice cream cone, roughly a 45-degree (?) slope, with the point at the high point of some raised conductor. lightning is very much more likely to hit the raised point than anything inside the "cone of protection". In detail it's more likley to hit something sharp than something rounded nearby (because a sharp point concentrates the field and gets the ionization started). But wires up a hill bring the voltage from lower down up the hill with them, shortening the gap to the clouds and raising the intensity of the field above the installation.
Once the lightning hits the facility it can be carried down the lines to stuff along them or at the other end. Unlike the charge-redistributions in the wires and ground leading up to the flash (which you can't do much about), the flash itself is very fast - which corresponds to high frequency signals. So it doesn't like inductance, which means it doesn't like to take tight corners and will jump appreciable gaps in preference. This gives you a chance to install protection and mitigation equipment. (It's hard to be completely immune to a direct hit. But capacitive and inductive surges can be rendered essentially harmless and damage from sideflashes and direct hits can be mitigated. Far better, of course, to give the stroke a preferred path that doesn't involve your wiring, in the form of a lightning rod with a good ground field.)
When lightning strikes the ground the hazard is not over. It spreads out through the ground like an upside-down lilly pad, discharging the charge that accumulated under the cloud. If there is a gap in the ground, like a dry ditch, it may jump across it rather than go around, or it may concentrate at the end of the cut. (My brother had a friend with a house out in a flat farming area at the end of a drainage ditch who was constantly getting damage from surge currents around the ditch and through his house when lightning discharged or hit one side of the ditch and the current ran around it and through his house). Of course plumbing - like sewer or a line to a well or water main - is a great ground conductor to "hook the house" to one area, while wiring to a wind genny, hydro plant, outbuilding, power grid, etc. can be an "antenna" for lightning and related surge currents. The power company tries really hard to keep their grid grounding lightning at the poles rather than through your house. If you put in your own stuff I suggest you emulate them.
I don't know the details on hydro. But I can guess: I wouldn't expect the "ditch effect" to focus crosswise currents at the plant if the water is present. The water would provide a good path across. But I'd expect lightning currents to flow ALONG the stream - and perhaps down your plumbing to your turbine and then maybe hop to the wiring. So protection against that might be wise. Of course the wiring between the genny and load has all the issues of any grid wiring, as does the plant being connected to it - especially if it's higher than its surroundings.
