14 DAY TRIAL // Only recently, the Earth Policy Institute made public reports of the current state of our renewable energy sources, with special emphasis placed on the use of hydropower.
These reports indicate that, throughout the past four decades, there has been a steady increase in the number of households and businesses relying on hydropower in order to have their energy needs met.
Official figures speak about an annual rise of roughly 3%, with hydropower presently being produced in about 160 countries throughout the world.
Out of these 160 nations, it seems that China, Brazil, Canada and the United States are the leaders when it comes to using falling water to produce electricity.
As ENN reports, China seriously took to hydro-power in the first few months of the year 2009, when the country made significant investments in this particular field.
Back then, 24% of this nation's total power generation capacity was a result of existent hydro-capacity. From that moment on, the Chinese people stuck to using hydropower and gradually improved on their methods to harness it.
The same source informs us that, thanks to its 450 dams, Brazil is the world's second-largest producer of hydropower.
Coming third on this green list, Canada relies on 475 hydroelectric plants to produce 62% of its electricity.
Interestingly enough, Canada is so efficient in generating energy from hydropower that is has trouble in selling some of it to the US.
Thus, on a yearly basis, the amount of electricity sold by the former country to the latter is more than enough to power 4 million American homes.
Last, but not least, the US has 6.4% of its total electricity demands met by means of hydropower.
From where we stand, it is a good thing that most nations worldwide are gradually starting to make the most out of the renewable energy sources they have at their disposal.