Recently, the "China Water News", "China Hydropower and Electrification" magazine and "China Rural Hydropower and Electrification Information Network" jointly selected 2016 rural hydropower ten major events.

1. National rural hydropower generation exceeded 250 billion kwh.
In 2016, the newly added installed capacity of rural hydropower was 2 million kilowatts, the total installed capacity more than 77 million kilowatts, the generation more than 250 billion kwh, equivalent to saving 78 million tons of standard coal and more than 200 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

2. Ministry of Water Resources issued to promote the development of green small hydropower.
2016 No. 1 document from Central government made a major deployment of green small hydropower. In December, the Ministry of Water Resources issued "Guidelines on the promotion of green small hydropower development ", confirming the approaches, goals, tasks and initiatives of developing the green small hydropower.

3. The central government demanded to strongly support the poverty-stricken areas by developing rural hydropower.
Small hydropower is an important clean renewable energy related to water conservancy infrastructure and the people’s livelihood, the issued "Economic and Social Development thirteenth five-year plan" and "the CPC Central Committee and State Council on the fight against poverty" in 2016 demanded to vigorously support the development of rural hydropower in poverty-stricken areas, and support the development of rural small hydropower in the old, revolutionary areas.

4. The hydropower resources development planning of over 2300 small and medium-sized rivers passed review or approval.
Since the beginning of 2012, the initial results have been scored for the current round of national unified review and compilation of the development planning for small and medium river hydropower resources, the planning report of the more than 3,200 river in the country's 25 provinces has been completed, more than 2,300 river planning has passed review or approval.

5. Efficiency-increase and capacity-expansion for rural hydropower in the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" fully implemented.
Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Water Resources jointly issued a notice, in the condition of unchanged financial capital support standards, with the river as a unit and with focus to ecological restoration, carried out the efficiency-increase and capacity-expansion for rural hydropower in the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" and with the total investment 12 billion yuan. Ministry of Water Resources introduced a guideline for efficiency-increase, capacity-expansion and ecological restoration. Rivers of dehydrated or decreased flow over 2,000 kilometers would be repaired. The installed capacity and annual power generation will increase by 25.3% and 42.1% respectively after the restoration.

6. Poverty-relief pilot project of rural small hydropower project initiated.
The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Water Resources implemented poverty-relief pilot project of rural small hydropower project by setting up archives and checking the cash income as the goal of the pilot project in Hunan and other six provinces (municipalities). crack down on the issues of stability of state-owned assets, precise poverty-relief and construction of long-term mechanism. The experience can be copied, be promoted and the construction effectiveness highly praised by the parties concerned.

7. Tasks over fulfilled for constructing safety production standardization on 1000 sets of rural hydropower pilot station.
Ministry of Water Resources in 2014 officially launched the safety production standardization pilot construction for rural hydropower. As of the end of 2016, over 1,100 rural hydropower pilot plants for safety production standardization in the country were actually completed, exceeding the set target. Through the pilot construction, the safety production level for rural hydropower stations was greatly improved.

8. The 7th " Hydropower Forum Today'" held in Hangzhou.
On November 2, the seventh "Hydropower forum today " opened in Hangzhou. Minister Chen Lei attended and made a keynote speech. Nearly 300 international organizations, government officials, experts and scholars from 36 countries participated in the forum, which is the highest in rank and in number. During the forum, the " Development Report on World Small Hydropower 2016" was released.

9. International influence of China's small hydropower continues to increase.
On July 9, UN Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-moon visited the International Small Hydropower Center, fully affirmed the contribution of China's small hydropower to climate change and the development of small hydropower in the world, and highly praised the important role that small hydropower played in international cooperation. On June 13, the Ministry of Water Resources and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) applied for the implementation of the SHP efficiency-increase and capacity-expansion project in China with the formal approval from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

10. Actively carry out small hydropower practical exploration for transformation and upgrading.
Various areas actively implemented the instructions from Central and the Ministry of Water Resources to develop green hydropower, adjust the development structures and boldly practice to explore. Zhejiang province took measures to implement for constructing the rural hydropower ecological demonstration area; Fujian province carried out rural hydropower ecological restoration through the "limiting, changing, transforming and withdrawing" and etc to restore the river ecology; Shaanxi province lead the scientific and rational development of rural water resources via planning; Jiangxi province actively explored experimental sites of monitoring small Hydropower minimum discharge and joint dispatch for cascade hydropower station. All these practice and experience would have a positive reference to the transformation for the rural hydropower across the country.