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Potential
 Hydropower has been used for centuries. The efficiency of hydropower surpasses that of wind, photo-voltaic and solar energy.
The annual energy production, in kWh, of a hydropower plant can be estimated by multiplying the rated output, in kW, by 5500. Thus a plant with a rated output of 320 kW will produce approximately 1.8 million kWh per year. At today's rates, such a kWh yields 7.6 cents when sold to the German public grid. For facilities using photovoltaic or wind technologies this multiplier would be approximately 1000 or 2000 respectively. For nuclear technology a multiplier of approximately 7000 should be used. This does however not take into account the considerable cost involved in transporting, processing, storing and safeguarding the fuel elements.
The useful life of about 80 years of a hydro-electric power plant also by far exceeds that of wind (20 years), photovoltaic (30 years) and solar power plants (20 years). Even a nuclear facility may only last about 40 years! We aim at replacing nuclear energy with hydropower.
The ratio of the energy produced over the lifetime versus the energy required to build the facility is about 1.3 for photovoltaic, 13 for solar, 190 for wind, and for hydropower an amazing 1200! This ratio is called the life-cycle cost-benefit ratio.
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