IV.

Global Hydroelectric Power Generation

Worldwide, hydropower represented 17 percent of the total energy generated in 2003, the most recent year for which data are available. In many countries, hydroelectric power is the dominant source of electric power. In 2003 Norway derived 99 percent of its power from hydroelectric plants. The same year, hydroelectric power provided 100 percent of the electricity used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, formerly Zaire) and 84 percent of the electricity used in Brazil.

The Itaipu hydroelectric plant on the Paraná River between Brazil and Paraguay, officially dedicated in 1982, has the greatest capacity in the world (12,600 megawatts when placed in full operation). The Grand Coulee Dam, the largest hydroelectric power plant in North America, provides about 6,480 megawatts.

Canada, the largest producer of hydroelectric power in the world, generated 332.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh) in 2003. This figure constituted 59 percent of the nation’s electric power. Hydroelectric-power generation in the United States increased from about 16 billion kwh in 1920 to 275.8 billion kwh in 2003. Although the United States runs a close second to Canada in the total amount of hydroelectric power produced, only 7 percent of the electric power used in the United States was generated by hydroelectric power plants in 2003.