Hydropower as an Important Renewable Energy Source

Renewable energy sources represent an issue which, nowadays, is earning more and more attention by people, governments, institutions and international organizations. This issue has been at the centre of many conferences, international conventions, binding legislations and voluntary standards. Renewable energy sources are part of the energetic sector, but they can be considered, more appropriately, a specific part of the mentioned sector as they are all characterized by one feature: they are environmentally friendly ways of producing energy. In other words, renewable energy sources are means to produce energy that do not imply the exploitation of finite sources, such as oil or carbon, but exploit energy coming from the sun, Earth, winds, biomasses. This sector is rapidly growing, as recently RE sources have reached the 13% of the total energy sources and now they are even more used. This paper has the aim to analyse and classify REs and the Italian situation referred to green energy, showing many successful cases of hydropower plants in different Italian regions. Thus, the installed power and the environmental conditions of different Italian regions are illustrated, comparing the different results and potentialities related to each region. It is possible to state that, generally, Italy has seen different stages of development of green energy, with relevant differences among its regions