There's something about smaller scale hydro power that gets the imagination going.
Other energy forms are being developed, including geothermal, biomass and small-scale hydro.
Small-scale hydro could also have a big role in balancing the output from individual wind farms, perhaps sharing the same grid connections.
Investments into wind, small-scale hydro, and biomass plants will exceed R$699 billions between 2011 and 2020.
Last week, after much negotiation, the chamber of deputies approved a new law decreeing that, by 2017, the country must generate 8% of its electricity from wind, solar or small-scale hydro power, among other energy sources.
The new 100MW station at Glendoe Scotlandd's first new large hydro plant in 50 years) is to be welcomed, but there is an even bigger role for small-scale hydro, which could produce a further 650MW.
The Alternative Energy Sources Incentive Program (PROINFA) was designed in 2002 to stimulate the electricity generation from three energy sources (wind, biomass and small-scale hydro) in Brazil.
Small-scale hydro is in most cases "run-of-river", with no dam or water storage, and is one of the most cost-effective and environmentally benign energy technologies to be considered for rural electrification in less developed countries.
Setting targets for new renewable energy (defined as modern biomass, solar, the wind, and small-scale hydro, geothermal, and marine energy) as well as reducing perverse and harmful energy subsidies were hotly debated.
