Hydropower Market Analysis

Capacity {Large (Above 100 MW), Small (Under 10 MW)}

The global hydropower market is segmented and analyzed for demand and supply by capacity into large hydropower (above 100 MW), small hydropower (under 10 MW), and others. Amongst these three segments, the large hydropower segment is expected to garner a significant share of around 52% by the year 2037. Large hydropower projects often need major financial investment and take longer to complete than smaller projects, and they have the potential to generate massive amounts of energy and offer substantial cost savings. Small hydropower projects, on the other hand, are frequently more adaptable and may be built faster, although they may have limited capability and may not be suited for all places. For instance, most large projects are government owned, since they require a significant investment to be built, along with the proper management of communities and environments impacted by such projects. For instance, the Three Gorges Dam in China is the largest hydroelectric plant in the world, with a capacity of over 2200 MWh.

Components (Electromechanical, Electric, Infrastructure, Civil)

The global hydropower market is also segmented and analyzed for demand and supply by components into electromechanical, electric, infrastructure, civil, and others. Amongst these three segments, the infrastructure segment is expected to garner a significant share of around 45% by the year 2037. The majority of the expense of a hydropower project is often spent on expensive construction activities such as excavation work, drilling, and dam & powerplant building. Moreover, the major costs include electromechanical gear, which includes turbines, generators, and other support equipment. Since, many of these parts and equipment are tailor-made to be case-specific, they can be quite expensive, thus they cannot be mass produced. As the size of the projects increase, the total cost of construction can go down. For very large-scale projects, the cost per kilowatt can be as low as 800-900 USD/kW and can go as high as 9000-11000 USD/kW for smaller sized projects.

Our in-depth analysis of the global market includes the following segments: