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Is hydro renewable?

In recent years, there has been considerable debate over the renewable quality of hydro projects. In this debate, distinctions are often made about large and small projects.

Some environmentalists argue that small hydro projects (30 megawatts or less) offer social and environmental advantages over large ones because they take up less space and usually affect only small waterways. In this view, large projects are unacceptable and “unrenewable” because of their perceived social and environmental impacts. In some U.S. states, regulators do not consider large hydro (systems greater than 30 or 100 megawatts, depending on the state) in their definitions of renewable energy.

Utilities and project developers take a different view. They say that all hydropower, small or large, storage or run-of-river, is a renewable source of energy because it converts the natural flow of water into electricity without wasting or depleting water in the production of energy.

In 2004, hydropower was recognized by governments, technology experts and non-governmental leaders as a renewable source of energy at the International Conference for Renewable Energies in Bonn, Germany.