Hydropower refers to generating electricity from water, usually by damming rivers.
Hydropower is considered a renewable energy resource, although it is crucial to consider its environmental impacts (such as flooding or droughts).
Hydropower in Germany
Germany has relatively little hydropower. The original feed-in tariffs of 1991 were implemented primarily to help existing small hydropower facilities to remain profitable. Some new systems have been built in the past 25 years, but the potential of hydropower in Germany has largely been tapped. For instance, in 1990, some 17.4 TWh of hydropower was generated compared to 20.8 TWh in 2017 (about four percent of Germany’s electricity generation). Parallel to the modernization of the systems, environmental improvements at many hydro plants have been installed over the past decade.