Hydropower is the most important renewable energy source to date, providing over 72% of all renewable electricity globally. Yet, only limited information is available on the global potential supply of hydropower and the associated costs. Here we provide a high-resolution assessment of the technical and economic potential of hydropower at a near-global scale. Using 15”×15” discharge and 3”×3” digital elevation maps, we built virtual hydropower installations at >3.8 million sites across the globe and calculated their potential using cost optimization methods. This way we identified over 60,000 suitable sites, which together represent a remaining global potential of 9.49 PWh yr⁻¹ below US$0.50 kWh⁻¹. The largest remaining potential is found in Asia Pacific (39%), South America (25%) and Africa (24%), of which a large part can be produced at low cost (<US$0.10 kWh⁻¹). In an ecological scenario, this potential is reduced to 5.67 PWh yr⁻¹.

迄今为止，水电是最重要的可再生能源，占全球所有可再生电力的72％以上。然而，关于全球水电潜在供应及其相关成本的信息很少。在这里，我们提供了近乎全球规模的水电技术和经济潜力的高分辨率评估。利用15”×15”排放和3”×3”数字高程图，我们在全球超过380万个站点上建造了虚拟水力发电装置，并使用成本优化方法计算了其潜力。通过这种方式，我们确定了60,000多个合适的场所，这些场所合起来代表的全球潜在潜力为9.49 PWh yr ^-1，低于0.50 kWh ^-1美元。在亚太地区（39％），南美（25％）和非洲（24％）中发现了最大的剩余潜力，其中很大一部分可以低成本生产（<0.10 kWh ^-1美元）。在生态场景中，该电势降低到5.67 PWh yr ^-1。