As a clean and renewable energy source, hydropower occupies an important position in China's energy transition. This paper systematizes the technical principles, development status, advantages, and challenges of hydropower and looks forward to its prospects. The study points out that China is rich in hydropower resources and has sufficient technological reserves, but the development rate is low and needs to be upgraded urgently. Currently, hydropower development is facing problems such as institutional monopoly, thermal power competition, and ecological conflicts, which need to be solved through power market reform, optimization of scheduling mechanisms, and promotion of integrated development of river basins. At present, China's hydropower installed capacity continues to grow, with high- power units and intelligent technology to promote the upgrading of the industry, but we need to pay attention to the ecological impact and the challenge of uneven regional resources. In the future, the construction of hydropower bases in the west and the layout of pumped storage power plants will become a key focus, helping to realize the goal of carbon neutrality. This paper emphasizes that hydropower has economic, social, and environmental benefits, and its sustainable development needs to be driven by both policy support and technological innovation.
Huiyu Luo (Thu,) studied this question.