Small Hydropower Market (By Capacity: Up to 1 MW, 1 to 10 MW; By Type: Mini Hydropower, Micro Hydropower; By Application: Electromechanical equipment, Power Infrastructure, Civil Construction, Others) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, Revenue, Regional Outlook and Forecast 2021-2030

The global small hydropower market size is expected to reach over US$ 4.5 billion by 2030 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 2.6% from 2021 to 2030.

Small hydropower plant (SHP) generates electricity by utilizing moving water. The categorization of hydropower plant differs from country to country, as there is no standard consensus among nations and regions. For instance, in the European Union, France, Norway, France, Italy, and Spain accept 10 MW as the upper limit for SHP installed capacity, while countries such as China and Canada consider 50 MW as the maximum capacity.

The small hydropower plant offers a several benefits such as eco-friendly, cost effective, reliable, and long lifespan. Moreover, setting up these plants require low capital investment, as they require minimum reservoirs and construction facilities.

Major Drivers

The consumption of electricity has been increasing significantly across the globe for the last few years due to rapid industrialization & urbanization and strong economic growth. The increase in demand for electricity and stringent norms & government regulations to minimize carbon emissions from the power sector are compelling companies to introduce highly effective and pollution-free energy generation methods. Small hydropower is a prominent alternative to fossil fuel, as these plants utilize moving water for power generation. Small hydropower is primarily employed in isolated regions. Small hydropower is a suitable option to generate sustainable as well as inexpensive energy in developing and rural areas due to its low investment costs, versatility, and renewable nature. Thus, increase in harnessing of hydropower resources across the globe is expected to drive the global small hydropower market during the forecast period.

Asia Pacific Leads Small Hydropower Market

Asia Pacific dominated the global small hydropower market in 2020. China held a major share of the small hydropower market in the region in 2020. The dominance of China in the small hydropower market in Asia Pacific can be ascribed to low investment and risk, long service life, consistent profit, and low operation cost of a small hydropower plant. Furthermore, abundant availability of hydropower resources, along with increase in efforts in utilization of renewable technologies to reduce carbon emissions is also a major factor attracting investment for the development of small hydropower resources across the country. The small hydropower market in North America is anticipated to expand during the forecast period, owing to ongoing investments in the development of small hydropower plants, primarily in the U.S., in order to cater to a rise in the demand for electricity. In 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy announced to invest US$ 24.9 Mn to drive innovative, industry-led technology solutions to advance the marine and hydrokinetics industry, and increase in ability of hydropower to serve as a flexible grid resource.

The small hydropower market in Europe is estimated to expand during the forecast period, owing to the introduction of several incentives to promote the adoption of renewable technologies. For instance, in December 2019, the European Commission and a consortium of 19 partners launched the four-year XFLEX HYDRO (Hydropower Extending Power System Flexibility) project at the ongoing United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid, Spain. Turkey accounted for a major share of the small hydropower market in the region in 2019. Turkey held hydropower capacity potential of 6,500 MW in 2019.

Capacity Insights

Based on the capacity, the segment is segregated as up to 1 MW and 1 to 10 MW. The up to 1 MW segment dominated the global market with a share of 58% in 2020. The up to 1 MW segment is projected to be the most abundant small hydropower during the projected period. This can be ascribed to the small-scale decentralized projects being installed in emerging nations, especially in APAC, for its rural electrification.

Asia Pacific dominated the up to 1 MW segment of the market. China, India, and Australia accounted for a noteworthy share of the small hydropower project installations across the region. Hence, the demand for small hydropower is driven by growing investments in rural electrification in these economies.

The 1 - 10 MW segment is anticipated to grow at the fastest CAGR of 3% from 2021 to 2030. This is attributed to the installation of small hydropower in various countries across the world.

Application Insights

The market, by application, is segmented into electromechanical equipment, power infrastructure, civil construction, and others, including structural, engineering, project development, environmental mitigation, and management. The civil construction segment held the largest share of 32.2% in 2019 and is expected to continue its lead during the forecast period.

Civil construction accounted for a substantial share of project costs across all small hydropower projects (SHPPs). Therefore, to correctly lead the water onto the turbines and to raise the water head level, civil constructions such as weirs (dams) are being built. Hence, these simple constructions are more economical than large hydropower plant projects.

The power infrastructure application segment is supposed to exhibit the fastest CAGR of 3.5% from 2021 to 2030. There is a growing need for modernization of small hydropower projects to boost electricity generation and extend the assets life to handle the growing demand for electricity.

Type Insights

Based on the type, the market is segregated as mini-hydropower and micro hydropower. Micro hydropower dominated the market and accounted for 57.9% share in 2020 and is expected to maintain its lead in the future. Micro hydropower projects range from 5 kW - 100 kW that can provide power for a rural industry or small community in remote areas away from the grid area.

The mini-hydropower segment is supposed to register the fastest CAGR of 2.8% from 2021 to 2030. Installations of the mini-hydropower segment are certainly driven by rural electrification. In the APAC region, China led the way in installing small hydropower projects for rural electrification. In various developed countries such as Norway and the U.S., the installation capacity is expected to upsurge the renewable energy share in the countries’ energy mix.

Key Players

The global small hydropower market is dominated by global players. Thus, the global small hydropower market is consolidated. Prominent players operating in the global small hydropower market include Alstom S.A., Voith GmbH, ANDRITZ HYDRO GmbH, BC Hydro, and StatKraft AS, Agder Energi AS, Ontario Power Generation Inc., Alstom, Siemens AG, BC Hydro, and Fortum Oyj. Market players adopt various strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, investments in new projects, and technological innovations in order to boost their share in the global small hydropower market.

Market Segmentation

Capacity Outlook 

• Up to 1 MW
• 1 to 10 MW

Type Outlook 

• Mini Hydropower
• Micro Hydropower

Application Outlook 

• Electromechanical equipment
• Power Infrastructure
• Civil Construction
• Others

Regional Outlook 

• North America
• Europe
• Asia Pacific
• Central and South America
• MEA

This report focuses on small hydropower market includes crucial information on market share, market size, and growth rate for the forecast period 2021 to 2030 at the global level, regional level and company level. From a global perspective, this report represents overall small hydropower market size by analyzing historical data and future prospect. The study highlights deep analysis on the major drivers of the market, restraints, and challenges to help the business owners, suppliers, and marketing personnel in planning effective strategies for the forecast period. This will help the business and manufacturers to lead the market and gain prominent position in future. The report also presents vital information through graphical representation on factors like table, charts, and statistics. The study includes drivers and restraints of the global small hydropower market.

The research not only conducts forecasts in terms of value, but also evaluates the market on the basis of essential parameters, such as Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) growth. This helps providers to recognize the future opportunities as well predictability of the market.

In order to understand and assess opportunities in this market, the report is categorically divided into five key sections on the basis of segments. The report analyzes the global market in terms of value (US$ dollers) and volume (Million Units).

The research report includes specific segments by region (country), by company, by all segments. This study provides information about the growth and revenue during the historic and forecasted period of 2017 to 2030. Every segment is further sub-segmented into several sub-segmented that are deeply analyzed by experts to offer valuable information to the buyers and market players. Understanding the segments helps in identifying the importance of different factors that aid the market growth.

Major Key Points Covered in Report:

Executive Summary: It includes key trends of the small hydropower market related to products, applications, and other crucial factors. It also provides analysis of the competitive landscape and CAGR and market size of the small hydropower market based on production and revenue.

Production and Consumption by Region: It covers all regional markets to which the research study relates. Prices and key players in addition to production and consumption in each regional market are discussed.

Key Players: Here, the report throws light on financial ratios, pricing structure, production cost, gross profit, sales volume, revenue, and gross margin of leading and prominent companies competing in the Small hydropower market.

Market Segments: This part of the report discusses about product, application and other segments of the small hydropower market based on market share, CAGR, market size, and various other factors.

Research Methodology: This section discusses about the research methodology and approach used to prepare the report. It covers data triangulation, market breakdown, market size estimation, and research design and/or programs.

Regional Analysis

The research report includes a detailed study of regions of North America, Europe, China, Japan and Rest of the World. The report has been curated after observing and studying various factors that determine regional growth such as economic, environmental, social, technological, and political status of the particular region. Analysts have studied the data of revenue and manufacturers of each region. This section analyses region-wise revenue and volume for the forecast period of 2017 to 2030. These analyses will help the reader to understand the potential worth of investment in a particular region.

The report provides in-depth segment analysis of the global small hydropower market, thereby providing valuable insights at macro as well as micro levels. Analysis of major countries, which hold growth opportunities or account for significant share has also been included as part of geographic analysis of the small hydropower market.

The report includes country-wise and region-wise market size for the period 2017-2030. It also includes market size and forecast by segments in terms of production capacity, price and revenue for the period 2017-2030.

Competitive Landscape

This section of the report identifies various key manufacturers of the market. It helps the reader understand the strategies and collaborations that players are focusing on combat competition in the market. The comprehensive report provides a significant microscopic look at the market. The reader can identify the footprints of the manufacturers by knowing about the global revenue of manufacturers, the global price of manufacturers, and sales by manufacturers during the forecast period of 2017 to 2019.

The analysts have provided a comprehensive analysis of the competitive landscape of the global small hydropower market with the company market structure and market share analysis of the top players. The innovative trends and developments, mergers and acquisitions, product portfolio, and new product innovation expected to provide a dashboard view of the market, ultimately providing the readers accurate measure of the current market developments, business strategies, and key financials.

Major manufacturers & their revenues, percentage splits, market shares, growth rates and breakdowns of the product markets are determined through secondary sources and verified through the primary sources.

Top-down and bottom-up approaches are used to estimate and validate the global market size for company, regional division, product type and application (end users) and other segments.

• Company Overview
• Company Market Share/Positioning Analysis
• Product Offerings
• Financial Performance
• Recent Initiatives
• Key Strategies Adopted by Players
• Vendor Landscape
• List of Suppliers
• List of Buyers

Research Methodology

The research methodology adopted by analysts for compiling the global small hydropower market report is based on detailed primary as well as secondary research. With the help of in-depth insights of the market-affiliated information that is obtained and legitimated by market-admissible resources, analysts have offered riveting observations and authentic forecasts for the global market.

During the primary research phase, analysts interviewed market stakeholders, investors, brand managers, vice presidents, and sales and marketing managers. Based on data obtained through interviews of genuine resources, analysts have emphasized the changing scenario of the global market.

For secondary research, analysts scrutinized numerous annual report publications, white papers, market association publications, and company websites to obtain the necessary understanding of the global small hydropower market.

The study objectives of this report are:

• To analyze and study the global market capacity, production, value, consumption, status (2017-2021) and forecast (2021-2030);
• Focuses on the key manufacturers, to study the capacity, production, value, market share and development plans in future.
• Comprehensive company profiles covering the product offerings, key financial information, recent developments, SWOT analysis, and strategies employed by the major market players
• To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.
• To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.
• To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.
• To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.
• To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the market
• To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market
• To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.