The World’s Biggest Hydro Powers

China is the world’s biggest hydro power producer, having generated an estimated 1,303 terawatt hours of hydropower in 2022, according to data published by Ember, a UK-based energy think tank. This equates to approximately 31 percent of global hydropower that year. Following some way behind comes Brazil (427 TWh), Canada (398 TWh), the United States (249 TWh) and Russia (198 TWh).

When looking at hydropower’s share of total electricity production for each of these countries, then Norway comes first with a high 87.5 percent of its electricity energy mix having been accounted for by hydropower in 2022. Only Paraguay comes higher in terms of share of total electricity production, at 99.7 percent. If this chart were extended, it would feature in rank 15. 

As this chart shows, India was the sixth biggest hydropower worldwide in 2022 with approximately 175 TWh of hydropower generated that year, which accounted for 9.4 percent of the country’s electricity production. According to Ember, fossil fuels accounted for more than three quarters (77 percent) of India’s electricity production in 2022. This was mostly from coal (74 percent), followed by gas (2.7 percent). India’s emissions are driven by this dependence on fossil fuels as well as its large population, although per capita emissions are low. The country has set a target of increasing the share of non-fossil fuel sources in its electricity generation capacity to 50 percent by 2030.