Hydropower Statistics and Facts (2025)

Introduction

Contents

Introduction
Editor’s Choice
Hydropower Key Facts
Hydropower Market Size
Highest Power Generation Countries From Hydro Power
Hydropower Generation By Region
Change In Hydropower Generation
Prospective Hydropower Capacity
Leading Hydropower Installer Capacity
Consumption Of Hydropower
Global Hydropower Investment Trends
Conclusion

Hydropower Statistics: Hydropower energy will remain one of the primary sources of renewable energy in 2024, accounting for a considerable percentage of the overall electricity generation around the globe. This is because water energy is regarded as the greatest renewable energy-producing source in parts of the world, where there is less reliance on fossil fuels.

In these and other regions, such energy sources are used to shift the energy matrix and any environmental goals. See how hydropower statistics and its market look and what the forecasts say for this industry.

Hydropower Energy

Hydropower is another conventional renewable energy resource that makes use of moving water kinetic energy. It contributes more than one-third of the total installed renewable capacity in the world and is also essential for irrigation and water resources management activities.

Despite its benefits, however, hydropower remains a subject of contentious debate; this is because many opposing views surface concerning the possible environmental effects of such projects, especially on river systems and their inhabitants.

Editor’s Choice

Worldwide revenue from hydropower is expected to be valued at 371.8 billion U.S. dollars by the year 2030, growing at an annual growth of 5.16% from 2022 to 2030, owing to the clean energy demand and policies.
The hydropower complex is the most developed in the Asia-Pacific region, accounting for more than 50% of the installations across the globe, with 1,303 TWh of Chinese output in 2022, or 31% of the world’s total.
Other major producers are Brazil, Canada, the USA, and Russia. Paraguay and Norway have the highest hydropower share of their energy production, with 99.7% and 87.5%, respectively.
In recent years, growth has been seen, especially for new hydropower investments and the refurbishment of old ones.
In 2020, the hydropower sector received 35 billion US dollars with an emphasis on sustainable development.
The year 2023 experienced severe droughts, which affected hydropower generation in many countries, with China and India being the most affected, with India registering the lowest production in almost four decades. This was compensated in part by the use of fossil sources of energy, which resulted in the emission of greenhouse gases.
As of April 2024, there were 4.2 GW of hydropower capacity under construction in Europe, the majority of which were located in Eastern Europe.
17 GW is in the pre-construction stage, and 10 GW is in the planning stage.
Projects like the Baihetan and the Three Gorges Dams in China and the Itaipu Dam in Brazil and Paraguay expand capacity but create environmental and social issues like ecosystem loss and greenhouse gases like methane. These numbers bring us to the U.S. hydropower geopolitical aspect.
The U.S. consumption of hydropower increased but annually reduced from 869 trillion BTUs in 2022 to 818 trillion BTUs in 2023, which could be associated with the drought as well as policy shifts. Conventional unit of energy that enables the comparison of various forms of energy across the United States.

Hydropower Key Facts

Total global generation of hydroelectric energy nowadays is approximately 4.5 petawatt hours, and the worldwide hydropower consumption registered 40.26 exajoules in 2021.
Naturally, countries that have a lot of water resources stand to gain more from hydropower because it is one of the cheapest sources of energy.
In fact, after the initial construction and installation, that is, making investments in a dam, generating power from water is almost free.
Moreover, hydropower generation is user-friendly as electricity can be produced by merely controlling the water passing through the turbines.
The current leader in terms of hydropower capacity, whether installed or operational, is China.
Although hydropower is often considered an environmentally friendly source, the construction of large-scale dams can adversely affect the environment.
The dams destroy the habitats of the existing water bodies.
Therefore, many of the new hydropower projects need to perform Environmental and Social Impact Assessments.
Hydropower statistics show that In many countries, small hydropower plants were built as an alternative to the large dams, which invested approximately 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, and the assimilation of small hydropower is projected to reach around 2.6 billion U.S. dollars by 2030.
According to estimates, global hydropower production in 2023 is expected to reach 1245. Seventeen terawatt hours is when China will claim the highest ermine.
Russia’s hydropower plants produced approximately 197.41 terawatt hours as a sign of comparison. Brazil and Canada followed closely after China in hydropower generation, with Brazil producing 431.28 terawatt hours and Canada 365.39 terawatt hours, respectively.
Its hydropower statistics indicate that in 2023, 28% of global hydropower consumption was in China, where over three-quarters of the country’s electricity generation was from hydropower.
In the year 2022, China constructed 13 gigawatts of hydropower capacity by developing new sites.
The potential for hydropower development in Brazil is mainly found in the northern basin of the Amazon River.
On the Paraná River, between Paraguay and Brazil, lies the Itaipu Dam, which is the world’s current second-tallest dam, having a generation capacity of 14,000 megawatts.

Hydropower Market Size

(Reference: insights.worldref.co)

It is forecasted that the global hydropower market will reach a market value of more than USD 371.8 billion by the year 2030.
The growth is expected to occur within the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5.16% between the years 2022 and 2030.
This suggests that the hydropower market will grow by roughly 5.16% each year on average.
This is likely attributed to the increasing demand for cleaner energy sources and the construction of clean energy facilities and investments, as well as the availability of hydropower as a low and stable energy alternative.
In practical terms, a CAGR of 5.16% implies that growth is steady and compounding- the value of the hydropower market will grow and expand greatly each year as the prior year payout is built on. Therefore, one can conclude that due to such consistent growth patterns in the market trends, a well-sustained market value will be placed by 2030, bolstering the fact that hydropower will remain one of the most significant sources of the renewable energy supply.

Highest Power Generation Countries From Hydro Power

(Source: voronoiapp.com)

In the year 2022, China was the world’s largest producer of hydropower and was able to generate a whopping 1,303 terawatt hours of electricity from hydropower systems, which was about 31% of all the hydropower generation in the world as estimated by Ember, an energy think tank based in the UK.
The next in line was Brazil, which generated 427 terawatt hours, followed by Canada, which produced 398 terawatt hours, the United States, which generated 249 terawatt hours, and then Russia, which generated 198 terawatt hours of hydropower.
Looking at the percentage of total electricity generated using hydro, Norway was the majority producer at 87.5% of the total electricity produced by hydro in 2022.
However, Paraguay was slightly higher at 99.7%, swept from hydro. In 2022, India was ranked the sixth country to produce more hydropower in the world, generating around 175 terawatt hours of hydro energy, a share that constituted 9.4% of the total electricity supply.
Nevertheless, fossil-based sources of energy were the primary sources of energy in India, constituting 77% of the country’s total electricity production, with coal comprising 74% and gas accounting for 2.7%.
This way of living, which depends on fossil fuels and also the high population of the country, leads to high total emissions from India despite the low per capita emissions rates.
The country hopes to raise the percentage of non-fossil fuel sources in the total installed electric generation capacity of the country to 50 in the year 2030.

Hydropower Generation By Region

(Reference: insights.worldref.co)

Due to its vast area and population, the Asia-Pacific region is not only the main hub for hydroelectric power energy production, but it also accounts for over 50% of the world’s overall hydroelectricity energy output.
Hydropower China also accounts for more than a seventh of the total hydropower generation in the world.
North America and Central America are the second and third medallist regions in terms of hydropower generation, respectively.

Change In Hydropower Generation

(Source: statista.com)

Hydropower statistics state that In the year 2023, there has been a noticeable downfall in global hydropower generation, mainly due to the harsh droughts affecting a number of key regions of generation.
A UK Energy think tank, Ember, projects that the annual output from hydropower plants will decrease by an estimated 99.74 terawatt hours.
China, being the highest hydropower-generating country globally, encountered severe droughts and heat waves, which led to lowered reservoir contents; thus, the production of hydropower was greatly affected.
Quite the same, India registered the highest falls in hydroelectric power generation within almost four decades, with a rational regression of 16.3% in the fiscal year 2023 at the end of March 31 due to erratic rainfall.
This decline in hydropower generation also had ramifications on the global energy supply, where most of the shortfall was compensated by increased use of fossil fuels, with emissions from the power sector growing a little.
These constraints highlight the problems associated with availing hydropower, such as climate change, and the importance of alternative renewable sources of energy for energy security that are ecologically friendly.

Prospective Hydropower Capacity

(Reference: statista.com)

By April 2024, in Europe, there were around 4.2 gigawatts of hydropower capacity in different stages of construction, including the majority from Eastern European countries, about 1.6 gigawatts.
In Europe, moreover, there were another 17 gigawatts of hydropower projects, which were in the pre-construction phase, whereas an additional 10 gigawatts were announced.

Leading Hydropower Installer Capacity

(Reference: visualizingenergy.org)

In recent times, the expansion of global hydropower generating capacity has been fostered strongly by large-scale efforts.
According to hydropower statistics, in China, the 16,000 MW Baihetan Dam and the Three Gorges Dam of 22,500 MW helped to increase the country’s hydroelectric power generation capacity six times from the year 2000 to 2023.
The Itaipu hydroelectric plant, which has a capacity of 14,000 MW, also extended hydroelectric power in Brazil and Paraguay, helping increase the capacity of the area by 67% when it was commissioned in 1984.
Currently, over 1,000 sites for large hydroelectric projects are at the planning, pre-construction, and construction stages across the globe.
Though hydropower is capable of providing cheap and affordable electricity and has low risks of carbon emissions, there is a high level of control that needs to be foreseen due to the nature of large-scale projects.
Rivers and their ecosystems may be altered, at-risk populations may be forced to migrate, and blasts of earthquakes may occur. Moreover, studies show that methane emissions, thanks to the reservoirs, reduce the climate benefits of hydropower. Avoidance of such consequences requires thorough environmental impact studies and participatory planning.

Consumption Of Hydropower

(Reference: statista.com)

The year 2023 saw the U.S. utilizing roughly 818 trillion British thermal units (BTU) of energy derived from hydraulic sources.
This is a lower figure than the one that was reported in the year 2022 when water energy consumption was about 869 trillion BTU.
This reduction indicates that the usage of water energy in the U.S. in 2023 was not as high as in the preceding year, perhaps due to factors such as droughts or policy dynamics that led to the generation of less electricity from water.
Also worthy of mention is the measurement units used here: since different energy types’ consumption in the US is compared and measured using British Thermal Units (BTU), which is helpful in giving a common scale for energy types, it is very efficient in presenting the political energy consumption levels.
The BTUs pertaining to the Hydropower sector are important to the overall U.S. energy composition that has other munition and non-munitions such as supplementary energies and fossil fuels.

Global Hydropower Investment Trends

The recent years have also seen an increase in investments in hydropower across the globe owing to inter alia the increasing need for clean energy and governments’ efficient policies towards renewable energy sources.
Hydropower statistics published by the International Hydropower Association show that new investments into hydropower projects were USD 35 in the year 2020.
The report also adds that there is a growing trend in the development of hydropower that emphasizes environmental and social issues.
Besides making investments in the construction of new projects, more money has also been allocated for the rehabilitation and modernization of the existing hydropower plants.
Such upgrades upgrade the current plant’s efficacy and capacity, hence aiding in the energy supply further.
Hydropower resources will be utilized hugely as the world turns to more sustainable energy sources due to the increase in demand for renewable energy sources.

Conclusion

To summarise, hydropower is undoubtedly one of the most important sources of renewable energy, contributing significantly to aspects such as power and clean energy transitions. According to hydropower statistics, in 2024, the industry will have recorded modest growth, and investments in new and modernized projects are forecasted to reach USD 371.8 Billion by the year 2030. On the other turn, environmental, drought, and climate change issues are deterrents to its consistent growth.

Nevertheless, due to the low cost and stable outputs, hydropower can’t be overlooked when planning for global power development, especially in areas such as Asia – which is the world’s largest contributor. For its growth sustainability, further developments and environmental consideration will be vital.

Hydropower Statistics By Capacity, Facts Consumption and Investment