DFID research on dams/hydropower and low carbon growth.

There is no internationally agreed definition for ‘small hydropower’, though the most common definition for small hydropower is a hydropower plant with a size of < 10 MW installed capacity. In China small hydropower refers to < 25 MW installed capacity and in India it refers to < 15 MW. Sometimes small hydropower is further divided into mini hydropower < 2MW, micro hydropower < 500 kW and pico hydropower < 10kW (Paish, 2002a; Paish, 2002b; ESHA, 2009; Yuksek et al., 2006). Small hydropower does not involve the construction of large dams and reservoirs and is mainly based on river run-off (Yuksek et al., 2006).