Albania, for example, is overdependent on hydropower, which lets it down when, as last winter, there is little water.
There have been some big transactions with companies that generate hydropower, which requires consistent snow and rain.
But the renewed attention to hydropower, which accounts for about 16 percent of the global electricity mix, comes with environmental red flags.
In Albania about a third of energy is imported but the rest comes from hydropower, which is classified by the International Energy Agency thinktank as renewable.
This is not a problem for smelters with access to cheap electricity such as hydropower, which explains Norway's 1.2m-tonne output.
The largest slice will come from hydropower, which accounted for around 15% of total energy in 2012 (with nuclear power at 2%).
This was the result of a greater production of hydropower, which reduced the need to burn fossil fuels for power and heat".
The government considers hydropower, which accounts for 77% of Brazil's energy, as the key to meeting the country's climate commitments while maintaining economic growth.
The natural companion to intermittent renewables is not nuclear but hydropower, which can be turned on and off to supply electricity when it is needed, and to store energy for when it is in surplus.
Our distribution utilities are negotiating to install a second transmission line for Canadian hydropower, which would be paid for through long-term power-purchase contracts approved by the New England states whose residents use that power.
"Anyone would acknowledge that hydropower is renewable, but do we want to give credits to the Grand Coulee Dam?" To do so, he added, would give hydropower — which already benefits from rich federal subsidies that make it some of the cheapest energy available — the same status as solar or wind technologies.
