Share of utility-scale installed capacity, by source
This interactive map and sortable table show every utility-scale hydroelectric power plant in the United States, all 1,565 plants of 1 MW or larger in the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s EIA-860 (2025 early release) whose energy source is water, color-coded by type: conventional hydro (1,528) and pumped storage (37). Hydropower is America’s oldest utility-scale renewable and, at roughly 102 GW here, still its largest source of renewable generation and grid storage. Plants are shown across all statuses: active (1,374), standby (84), in development (35) and decommissioned (72). Dams are long-lived, so retirements are rare; most new capacity today is pumped storage and turbine uprates. Together, the 1,374 active hydroelectric plants mapped here have a combined capacity of about 101,600 MW (~102 GW). Source: U.S. EIA Form EIA-860 (2025 early release), Schedules 2 (Plant) and 3 (Generator), with every plant’s status and capacity then reviewed against the Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory (EIA-860M), June 2026.
Capacity is what is installed; generation is what actually ran. Hydroelectric holds 7.68% of US utility-scale generating capacity and produced 5.57% of the electricity in 2025, an implied capacity factor of 27.8% on a nameplate basis. Nuclear is the extreme case in one direction, at 7.32% of capacity for 17.70% of generation; solar is the extreme in the other, at 12.50% for 6.67%.
Sources, basis and how the totals reconcile
Sources. Generation is EIA Electric Power Monthly, Table 1.1, Net Generation by Energy Source: Total (All Sectors), annual 2025 row. EIA marks 2025 and 2026 values as preliminary; 2024 and earlier are final, so these shares may be revised. Capacity is this site’s own datasets from EIA-860 (2025 early release), reconciled against EIA-860M (June 2026).
Basis. Both charts cover utility-scale plants of 1 MW or larger, generating sources only. Battery storage is excluded from the capacity chart because it shifts power rather than producing it, and estimated small-scale rooftop solar (93,148 GWh in 2025) is excluded from the generation chart so the two stay comparable.
Totals. The generation slices sum to 4,434,820 GWh. EIA’s published net total is 4,429,502 GWh, being that figure less 5,320 GWh of net pumped-storage hydro, which EIA reports as a negative because pumping consumes more electricity than generation returns, and a further 2 GWh that EIA attributes to independent rounding. Pumped storage is left out of the pie because a negative value cannot be drawn as a slice. Percentages use largest-remainder rounding at two decimal places so each chart adds to 100.00%.
Category notes. EIA reports wind, biomass and geothermal as one 526,246 GWh category; the split here carries a one-unit adjustment on wind so the three reconcile to that published total. Biomass covers wood and wood waste, black liquor, landfill gas, sludge waste, agricultural byproducts and biogenic municipal solid waste. Other fossil gas is blast furnace gas, gaseous propane and other manufactured waste gases; Other is hydrogen, non-biogenic municipal solid waste, batteries, purchased steam, sulfur and tire-derived fuel. One definitional seam is worth knowing: EIA-860 files gaseous propane under petroleum products, while Table 1.1 files it under other fossil gas, so the same fuel sits in the Petroleum slice on the capacity chart and the Other fossil gas slice on the generation chart. Only one 2.3 MW plant is affected.
Share of utility-scale electricity generated, by source
EIA preliminary data
Hydroelectricity is dispatchable, so operators hold water back and release it when demand and prices are highest. The profile follows the daily load curve, subject to river flow, reservoir levels and downstream water-management obligations that often matter more than price.
Method: this is a modeled profile, not metered data. The 24-hour mean of 27.8% is the implied annual capacity factor, calculated as 2025 generation from EIA Electric Power Monthly Table 1.1 divided by the nameplate capacity of the active fleet on this page multiplied by 8,760 hours. EIA’s own published capacity factors use net summer capacity as the denominator and therefore run higher. The hourly shape applies the documented operating behaviour of this technology to that mean and is indicative rather than measured; metered hourly output would come from the EIA Hourly Electric Grid Monitor, which is not yet wired into this page.
| # | Plant | Type | State | Nearest city | Operator | Status | Capacity | Online |
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Run-of-river and reservoir dams convert the energy of falling or flowing water into electricity through a hydraulic turbine. Conventional hydro is America’s oldest large-scale renewable and still its largest by generation, anchored by giants like Grand Coulee.
Reversible turbines pump water uphill to an upper reservoir when power is cheap, then release it to generate at peak demand. Pumped storage is by far the largest form of grid energy storage in the US (~22 GW), led by plants like Bath County and Ludington.
Most US hydro dams were built in the mid-20th century and run for generations, so retirements are rare. Little new conventional capacity is added today, but new pumped-storage projects and turbine uprates are in development.
Any utility-scale plant (1 MW or larger) in EIA-860 (2025 early release) whose energy source is water (code WAT). That yields 1,565 plants. Type is set by the generator’s prime mover: a conventional hydraulic turbine (HY) or a reversible pumped-storage turbine (PS).
Conventional hydro turns the natural flow or fall of water into electricity at a dam or run-of-river site. Pumped storage is a battery: it pumps water to an upper reservoir when electricity is cheap and releases it through reversible turbines to generate at peak demand.
About 102 GW of active and standby capacity, roughly 80 GW of conventional hydro and 22 GW of pumped storage. Hydropower is the largest source of US renewable generation historically and pumped storage is the largest form of US grid energy storage.
Hydro dams are extremely long-lived, and many have run for 70–100 years, so retirements are rare compared with thermal plants. Most are relicensed and upgraded rather than retired.
Little new conventional hydro is added in the US, but several projects are in development, chiefly new pumped-storage facilities, powering existing non-powered dams, and turbine uprates. EIA-860 lists those proposed units here under “In development.”
It is the EIA-860 2025 early release (Schedules 2 and 3). EIA notes the early release is not fully edited and may withhold a few plants pending validation. Plants below 1 MW are not part of EIA-860.
Hydropower is the original American renewable, and the map still reflects the great dam-building eras of the 20th century. Capacity concentrates dramatically in the Pacific Northwest, where the Columbia and its tributaries host Grand Coulee, the largest power plant in the United States by capacity, alongside dozens of other federal dams. Secondary clusters follow the Tennessee, Colorado and the rivers of California, New York and the Southeast.
At roughly 102 GW of active capacity, hydro is a quiet heavyweight, and it plays two distinct roles. Conventional dams provide low-cost, flexible, carbon-free generation that operators can ramp on demand. Pumped-storage plants pump water uphill when power is cheap and release it through turbines when it is dear. In effect, they are the largest grid batteries ever built, and their value is rising as solar and wind grow. Few new large dams will be built, so hydro’s future lies in upgrading existing plants and expanding pumped storage. See how that complements solar and gas in our analysis of the changing grid.