| Hydropower is energy that is captured and turned into electricity from flowing water. Hydropower is currently the largest source of renewable power, providing about 2.7 percent of America's total energy supply and generating nearly 7 percent of the electricity used in the United States. Hydropower generates 76 percent of all electricity produced from renewable resources. The total U.S. hydropower capacity - including pumped storage facilities - is about 95,000 megawatts.
The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation is the second largest producer of hydroelectricity in America. The Bureau manages 58 hydroelectric power plants, which annually generate an average of more than 42 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough electricity to satisfy the needs of 9 million people, or the energy equivalent of 70 million barrels of oil.
The Bureau's 6.8 million kilowatt power plant at Grand Coulee Dam is the largest in America.
Hydropower plants typically operate at 85 to 90 percent efficiency, more than twice the efficiency of fossil fuel plants.
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