The hydropower sector is currently experiencing several technological developments. New technologies and practices are emerging to make hydropower more flexible and more sustainable. Novel materials have also been recently developed to increase performance, durability, and reliability; however, no systematic discussions can be found in the literature. Therefore, in this paper, novel materials for hydropower applications are presented, and their performance, advantages, and limitations are discussed. For example, composites can reduce the weight of steel equipment by 50% to 80%, polymers and superhydrophobic materials can reduce head losses by 4% to 20%, and novel bearing materials can reduce bearing wear by 6%. These improvements determine higher efficiencies, longer life span, waste reduction, and maintenance needs, although the initial cost of some materials is not yet competitive with respect to the costs of traditional materials. The novel materials are described here based on the following categories: novel materials for turbines, dams and waterways, bearings, seals, and ocean hydropower.

水电行业目前正在经历几项技术发展。新技术和实践的出现使水电更加灵活和可持续。最近还开发了新材料以提高性能、耐用性和可靠性；然而，在文献中找不到系统的讨论。因此，本文介绍了用于水电应用的新型材料，并讨论了它们的性能、优势和局限性。例如，复合材料可以使钢铁设备的重量减轻50%～80%，聚合物和超疏水材料可以使水头损失降低4%～20%，新型轴承材料可以使轴承磨损降低6%。这些改进决定了更高的效率、更长的使用寿命、减少废物和维护需求，尽管某些材料的初始成本相对于传统材料的成本还没有竞争力。此处根据以下类别对新型材料进行描述：涡轮机、水坝和水道、轴承、密封件和海洋水力发电的新型材料。