Hydropower Market: Harnessing The Power Of Water

The global hydropower market size accounted for USD 266.35 billion in 2024 and is expected to exceed around USD 425.66 billion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of 4.8% from 2025 to 2034.

Hydropower Market Report Highlights

• By region, Asia Pacific dominated the hydropower market in 2024 with the highest revenue share.
• By region, North America is expected to grow fastest during the forecast period.
• By type, the micro hydropower segment held a dominant presence in the market in 2024.
• By type, the mini hydropower segment is expected to grow at the fastest rate in the market during the forecast period of 2025 to 2034.
• By component, the civil construction segment registered its dominance over the market in 2024.
• By component, the electromechanical equipment segment is anticipated to grow with the highest CAGR in the market during the studied years.  
• By end-user, the utility segment maintained a leading position in the market in 2024.
• By end-user, the industrial segment will gain a significant share of the market over the studied period of 2025 to 2034.

Industry Valuation and Growth Rate Projection

The hydropower market refers to the production, distribution, and application of hydropower, which is also known as hydroelectric power or hydroelectricity, is one of the largest and oldest sources of renewable energy that uses the natural flow of moving water to generate electricity. Hydropower is a reliable, renewable source of energy that generates power by setting up a dam or diversion structure to alter the natural flow of a water body (usually a river). The advantages of hydropower are numerous and have been widely recognized for several years. Additionally, it is a cost-effective and renewable source of energy. Hydropower plants can immediately feed power to an existing grid, acting as a reliable and flexible backup resource, especially during outages or major electricity disruptions. Hydropower also comes with many advantages outside of electricity generation, including but not limited to irrigation support, water supply, and flood control.

Hydropower provides benefits beyond electricity generation by providing clean drinking water, flood control, and irrigation support. Hydropower is affordable. Hydropower is the most efficient way to generate electricity. Modern hydro turbines are so efficient they can convert 90% of the available energy into electricity, compared to fossil fuel plants which are only able to harness 50% of the available energy. This makes switching to hydropower quite cost-effective for countries looking to incorporate more renewable sources into their electricity grid.

Regional cooperation and supportive government policies are driving the growth of the hydropower market. The object of the policy is to prevent a decline in hydro share and to undertake measures for the exploitation of vast hydroelectric potential in the country. Federal agencies can encourage the adoption of environmentally conscious hydropower by incentivizing projects through tax relief, feed-in tariffs, long-term power purchase agreements, or even concessional loans whenever needed. 

Additionally, multinational institutions can ensure that multi-donor trust funds for the development of sustainable hydropower in developing countries are funded and well supported. The Government of India has set the following objectives for the pace of hydropower development: increasing private investment, strengthening the role of SEBs/PSUs for taking up new hydel projects, promoting small and mini hydel projects, exploiting vast hydroelectric potential at a faster pace, and ensuring targeted capacity addition during 9th plan. Regional cooperation is the fundamental step leading towards regional integration. With its reintroduction around the world after the Cold War, regional economic integration was recognized as potentially making a significant contribution to the development efforts in emerging economies.

Cooperation between the private and public sectors can be used to work effectively and respectfully with diverse people or teams, making compromises, building consensus in decision-making, especially in terms of displacement of communities affected by dams, assigning shared responsibility for work that is collaborative, and value the opinions and contributions of individual team members from a position of firm self-identity.

Environmental concerns and competition from other renewable sources drive the growth of the hydropower market. Hydropower is an eco-friendly form of energy generation compared to other sources of electrical power, especially fossil fuels. Hydropower plants are clean, not emitting any waste heat or greenhouse gases, which is common with fossil fuel-driven facilities. Greenhouse gases are driving climate change and are major contributors to air pollution, global warming, and acid rain. Hydropower generators produce clean electricity. Hydropower is a low-carbon source of renewable energy and a reliable and cost-effective alternative to electricity generation by fossil fuels. Unlike traditional fossil fuel energy sources, using water to generate electricity doesn’t release harmful pollutants into the air or water. 

• According to a report, hydroelectric power plants reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 97.7% compared to coal power plants. 
  
  
• According to an Energy Institute-Statistical Review of World Energy (2024), Global hydropower consumption is measured in terawatt hours of direct primary energy consumption.