Hydropower is the only renewable energy capable of generating electricity on a large scale
90
90
Modern hydropower plants achieve an efficiency of more than 90%. This makes them by far the most effective solution for energy generation.
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22500
Hydropower plants are available in a large range of capacities – from <1 MW up to more than 22,500 MW – and therefore fit to a lot of different environment conditions.
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267
Hydropower has the highest Energy Payback Ratio (EPR) of all electricity generation technologies, with up to 267 for run-of-river plants and 205 for storge plants. By comparision, the EPR for fossil fuels is between 3 to 11, for large wind turbines 39 and for nuclear power plants 16.
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16
Hydropower is the world's largest source of renewable energy generation representing 16% of the total global electricity production, including conventional.
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2378
Total global renewable power capacity was 2,378,000 MW in 2018. Hydropower accounts for nearly half of this total.
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2940
2,940 Mt CO2 avoided by hydropower in comparison to burning fossil fuels.
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635168091
This is equivalent to annual GHG emissions from 635,168,091 passenger vehicles.