Currently, one of China's largest hydro-electric power plants (capacity: 12,600 megawatts) is being built at the Jinsha River ("Gold Sand River") on the upper reaches of the Yangtze. Voith Hydro was awarded a contract for generators and turbines worth over EUR 120 million. Voith Hydro will also deliver hydro power plants to South America – Colombia and Brazil – with a total value of approximately EUR 400 million. The expansion of hydro power also continues in Europe: Voith will supply turbines for three power plants on the Rio Miño in Spain, and in Austria, Voith Hydro will also modernize the Pernegg power station on the Mur River.

The market for hydro power stations is driven by two long-term trends. One is climate change, which boosts the demand for technologies providing CO2-free power generation. Today, hydro power is the only renewable energy resource that can generate power in large quantities, sufficient enough for running large industrial plants such as steel mills. This is why emerging markets, particularly China and India, specifically rely on electricity from hydro power, as this resource enables them to achieve their climate protection, environmental and growth objectives in equal measures.

The second growth factor for hydro power is the rapidly increasing share of wind energy in electric grids. Power fluctuations caused by varying wind speeds have to be quickly and reliably compensated by suitable backup capacities. Wind and hydro power complement each other perfectly: with pumped storage plants, hydro power offers a reliable, proven and CO2-free technology that makes it possible to store power in large quantities that can be instantly fed into the grid, in order to offset power fluctuations from these intermittent technologies.

Voith Hydro is a Group Division of Voith. With a workforce of approximately 3,600 and sales worth approximately EUR 1.4 billion in the past fiscal year, Voith Hydro is a global leader for hydro power equipment supply and service.

Voith also sets industry standards in the paper, energy, mobility and service markets. Founded in 1867, with 43,000 employees, sales worth EUR 4.9 billion and 290 locations worldwide, today Voith is one of the largest family-owned companies in Europe.