Among renewable energies, hydropower is by far the most important one. In fact, It provides a relevant amount of the primary energy demand (about 27-28% of global energy productions comes from hydropower). <\p>
The main advantage of hydro electrical power plants (HPP) consists in exploiting a completely renewable and unlimited resource (water), and providing electrical power at very competitive prices without fuels or raw materials. Another point of strength is the extremely high efficiency reached by this technology due to a long technological evolution since the middle of the 20th century.
In fact, modern HPP installations, if properly designed, can achieve efficiency values between 80% and 90%, much more than that those that can be reached by other (both renewable and non-renewable), energy sources. Moreover, hydropower offers important environmental benefits, sue to the fact that It does not emit any type of pollutant (gases, particulates, etc.), hence assuming a fundamental role for the fulfillment of the international commits for reduce the CO2 emissions stated in the Kyoto protocol.
