Country Brief (United States of America)

Hydropower development
There is no official figure for gross theoretical hydropower potential in the USA, although a USACE study in 1979 indicated that, if all potential sites were fully developed, the USA could have as much as 512 GW of installed hydro capacity (equivalent to 4485 TWh/year of gross potential). The technically feasible capacity is estimated to be 146 700 MW (about 528 500 GWh/year). The economically feasible hydro potential is about 376 000 GWh/year.

The total powerplant capacity is about 750 GW, of which the hydro capacity is about 75 400 MW, which represents about 51 per cent of the technically feasible hydro capacity (of 146 700 MW). The production from hydro plants was 347 319 GWh in 1996.
There is a modest amount of additional hydro capacity under construction, and about 350 MW planned.
About 52 per cent of the hydro capacity in operation is privately owned by many different organizations: 24 per cent belongs to the USACE, 16 per cent to Burec, 6 per cent to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and 3 per cent to others. There are 14 292 MW of hydro capacity at 58 plants.
USACE estimated that about 1000 to 2000 MW of extra capacity could be obtained by upgrading is hydro plants.
There was 21 773 MW of installed capacity at pumped-storage plants in 1995.
Of the USA's 6356 large dams. Only 860 are used for hydropower generation, while of the total 75 200 dams, only 2744 are used for hydro generation. There is thus ample opportunity to add hydro generating facilities at existing dams.

Hydropower development , Small hydro / Further outlook, <<Back