Abstract: There are some issues in the degree and stage of hydropower development in China, such as different statements, vague comparative concepts, unclear data sources and statistical caliber, etc. This paper presents a systematic comparison of the hydropower development degrees in China and other key countries and regions to judge accurately the development stage and global level of China's hydropower, based on the international authoritative statistical data of hydropower resources and development status. The technical exploitable hydropower in China reaches 2740 TWh·a-1, accounting for 44.3% of the theoretical exploitable total, indicating her abundant hydropower resources and good development conditions. From the comparison of key countries and regions, the hydropower development degree in China has reached 48.2%, only second to the United States among the top ten in terms of the resources and installed capacity of hydropower, meaning 4.6% higher than the average level of developed countries. Although this overall degree is relatively high, the degree of some rivers in Southwest China is only 16%, and the proportion of pumped-storage power stations with good regulation performance is only 1.4% of the installed power capacity. Problems exist such as unbalanced regional development and weak pumping and storage function. Under the new situation, China should focus on promoting the development of conventional hydropower in key areas of the southwest basin, and accelerate large-scale construction of pumped-storage power stations.

Key words: hydropower, development degree, benchmarking analysis, pumped-storage power, double carbon targets