Largest Hydroelectric Power Stations in the World 2026
About This Dataset
Largest Hydroelectric Power Stations in the World 2026
The biggest conventional hydroelectric dams in operation in 2026, ranked by installed capacity in megawatts. Run-of-river and pumped-storage plants are listed separately because they work differently: these are reservoir dams that store water behind a wall and release it through turbines.
Analysis
Three Gorges in China is the largest at 22,500 MW, 1.41 times the 16,000 MW of Baihetan Dam. The 10 stations here total 121,005 MW. 5 of them are in China, and 5 countries are represented in total. The smallest on the chart, Grand Coulee, is rated at 6,809 MW, 30% of the leader.
Key Findings
🏆
Three Gorges (China) leads in Installed Capacity (MW) with 22,500 in 2026.
📊
Average Installed Capacity (MW) in 2026: 12,101 · median: 10,734.
↔️
Gap in 2026: Three Gorges (China) is 3.3× larger than Grand Coulee (United States).
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- Wikipedia, List of largest power stations
- Coverage
- 10 entities · 2026 · 10 observations
- Measure
- Installed Capacity (MW)
- Last updated
- 7 September 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
How the figures are calculated
- Values are shown as reported by the source. Nothing is rescaled, rebased or converted — the only changes are thousand separators and decimals shown to two places.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value in 2026.
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
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