Hydropower is the foremost renewable source for electricity generation globally, supplying 71% of all renewable electricity. Reaching 1,064 GW of installed capacity in 2016, it generated 16.4% of the world’s electricity from all sources.

Hydropower is receiving enormous support from various governments around the world in the form of favorable policies and incentives. Of all of the renewable energy sources, hydropower is one of the most widely used, as it is inexpensive and is well established. At the global level, hydropower generation accounts for 18.6% of total power generation as of 2016. The total hydropower installed capacity increased from 864 Gigawatts (GW) in 2006 to 1,211.3 GW in 2016, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3.4%.

As of 2016, the Asia-Pacific region was the global leader with 64.1% of global hydropower annual installed capacity followed by South and Central America, Europe, Middle East and Africa (MEA) and North America. The highest capacity additions witnessed in Asia-Pacific were attributed to countries such as China, India, and Indonesia.

China with 50.7% of annual capacity additions was the global leader in terms of capacity additions with 21.5 GW of the annual capacity in 2016. Brazil had the second largest annual installed capacity after China with a share of 8.7% in 2016. The country added 3.7 GW of the annual capacity in the same year. Brazil is followed by India with the addition of 2.1 GW of the annual capacity in 2016.

According to international hydropower association 1212 GW Total installed capacity, 145GW Pumped storage capacity for hydropower and there are 159 Number of countries where hydropower is a fully mature technology.

There are numerous opportunities throughout the world for hydropower development though there is no clear agreement; estimates show that there is approximately 10,000 TWh/year availability of unutilized hydropower potential worldwide.

There are three types of hydropower stations: ‘run of river’, where the electricity is produced through the flow of a river’; ‘reservoir’, where power is generated through the release of stored water; and ‘pumped storage’, where stored water is recycled by pumping it back up to a higher reservoir in order to be released again. Hydropower amenities installed today range in size from less than 100 kW to greater than 22 GW, with individual turbines reaching 1000 MW in capacity.

Hydropower could double its impact by 2050, reaching 2,000 GW of global capacity and over 7,000 TWh. This achievement, driven primarily by the quest of clean electricity, could prevent annual emissions of up to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 from fossil-fuel plants. The bulk of this growth would come from large plants in emerging economies and developing countries.More Alternate Energy Industry reports at MarketsandReports.com/MarketReports