Photo: Bearfotos on Freepik
The world’s hydroelectric capacity increased 1.7% last year to 1.44 TW, the International Hydropower Association said in its annual report. It highlighted the sharp rise in the pumped storage hydropower segment. Turkey doesn’t host any such energy storage facilities, but the country’s additions of conventional capacity were the highest in Europe for the second time in a row.
Hydropower generation rallied 10% to 4.58 PWh in 2024. It rebounded strongly from drought-affected lows the previous year, the International Hydropower Association (IHA) calculated. Data from its 2025 World Hydropower Outlook points to strong global momentum, led by a surge in pumped storage hydropower.
The world’s largest source of renewable electricity accounted for 14.3% of supply.
Scandinavia and Central Asia may see a 5%-15% rise in hydropower output from their current fleet, while Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East could experience declines of up to 40% by the century’s end, the authors warned. The declines are driven by longer dry periods, reduced flows and greater evaporation. IHA expects the strongest impact in countries such as Spain, Italy and Turkey.
Notably, the last of the three achieved the highest growth in Europe in overall capacity last year, for the second time in a row. Turkey added 241 MW, making it 11th in the world, after 399 MW the year before. Then it was three notches higher on a global scale.
More than half of capacity in project pipeline is for pumped storage
Hydropower development pipeline grew 8% to 1.08 TW, including 600 GW of pumped storage.
Growth in global capacity amounted to 24.6 GW, against 22 GW in 2023. In relative terms, it rose 1.7% to 1.44 TW, of which pumped storage jumped 5% or 8.4 GW to 189 GW. Last year the rise was 6.5 GW. The rate in the pumped storage segment doubled in the past two years.
China continues to dominate, with 14.4 GW of capacity added in 2024, including 7.75 GW of pumped storage. It reached 436 GW, which was 30.2% of the global total.
Hydropower plants in Norway generated almost two times more electricity than the ones in Turkey
The country has more than 91 GW of pumped storage capacity under construction, compared to over 105 GW in the whole world! China is planning to add a whopping 136 GW beyond that in the segment.
The overall hydropower sector faces a potential shortfall of 60 GW to 70 GW by 2030 against the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) target in its “tripling renewables” scenario.
“A clear business case for pumped storage is emerging, supported by a European project pipeline of 52.9 GW in development. Of this, 3 GW is under construction,” the report reads.
Turkey has strongest conventional hydroelectric fleet in Europe but poor utilization rate
Norway has the most hydropower capacity in Europe, as it reached 33.9 GW last year. Pumped storage hydropower had a share of 1.4 GW.
Turkey remained second in Europe in overall hydropower capacity and ninth in the world, at 32.77 GW. But there are no pumped storage hydroelectric units in the country, so in conventional terms it ranks the highest on the continent.
On the other hand, hydropower production in Norway was almost two times higher than in Turkey in 2024, 140 TWh versus 75 TWh. The latter increased its output from 66 TWh.
Interestingly, while IHA measured an increase of 241 MW in capacity last year in Turkey, IRENA’s earlier annual report showed growth of 424 MW, to 32.39 GW. There is nearly 600 MW currently under construction in the country, according to the update. It compares to 460 MW in the report released a year ago.
France is Europe’s third, with 25.45 GW at the end of 2024, of which 5.1 GW was pumped storage. Output was equivalent to Turkey’s.
Spain was next overall, at 22.75 GW. Portugal came in second-best in added capacity, at 160 MW. Germany is at the top of the chart in operational pumped storage hydropower – 9.45 GW.
As for the other markets that Balkan Green Energy News tracks, Greece had more than 3 GW of pumped storage projects in development at the end of 2024.
Be the first one to comment on this article.