How many hydro power plants are in Colorado?

Colorado has 49 operating utility-scale hydro power plants with 1.2 GW of capacity, according to the EIA's monthly survey of power plants.

What is the largest hydro power plant in Colorado?

Cabin Creek in Clear Creek County, Colorado is the largest, at 300 MW. It came online in 1967.

How many hydro power plants were built in Colorado in 2025?

0 hydro power plants came online in Colorado in 2025, with 0 MW of capacity.

Who is developing hydro power plants in Colorado?

Interconnection queues list each project under a project company, not the developer behind it. Cleanview researches the developer of every project and has them on paid plans.

Hydro power plants in Colorado

Colorado has 49 operating hydro power plants with 1.2 GW of capacity.

Operating49

Updated monthly. Last updated November 2026.

Under 50 MW50–249 MW250 MW and up

Updated monthly. Last updated November 2026.

Colorado had 46 hydro power plants online in 2016 and 49 in 2026

2016’162017’172018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’252026’26

Hydro power plants online at the end of each year. Source: EIA-860M, compiled by Cleanview.

The 10 largest hydro power plants in Colorado

Operating, by capacity

#	Hydro power plant	County	Year online	Capacity
1	Cabin Creek	Clear Creek County	1967	300 MW
2	Mount Elbert	Lake County	1984	200 MW
3	Morrow Point	Montrose County	1971	173 MW
4	Flatiron	Larimer County	1954	95 MW
5	Blue Mesa	Gunnison County	1967	86 MW
6	Estes	Larimer County	1950	45 MW
7	Pole Hill	Larimer County	1954	38 MW
8	Crystal	Montrose County	1978	28 MW
9	Tesla	El Paso County	1997	27 MW
10	Green Mountain	Summit County	1943	26 MW

Hydro power plants that came online most recently in Colorado

Newest first

#	Hydro power plant	County	Year online	Capacity
1	Vinelands Power Plant	Mesa County	2022	5 MW
2	James W. Broderick Hydropower Plant	Pueblo County	2019	8 MW
3	Drop 5 (CO)	Montrose County	2017	2 MW
4	Granby Hydro	Grand County	2016	1 MW
5	Shavano Falls Hydro Drop 4	Montrose County	2015	5 MW
6	Shavano Falls Hydro	Montrose County	2015	3 MW
7	Tri-County Water Hydropower Project	Ouray County	2014	8 MW
8	South Canal Hydro-3	Montrose County	2013	4 MW
9	Boulder Canyon Hydro	Boulder County	2013	5 MW
10	South Canal Hydro-1	Montrose County	2013	4 MW

The developer behind each project is on paid plans. See plans

How Cleanview tracks hydro power plants

Operating hydro power plants come from the EIA's monthly survey of power plants. Planned projects come from the grid operators' interconnection queues. We research who is developing each one, since a queue lists a project company, not its owner.

Questions about hydro power plants in Colorado

How many hydro power plants are in Colorado?: Colorado has 49 operating utility-scale hydro power plants with 1.2 GW of capacity, according to the EIA's monthly survey of power plants.
What is the largest hydro power plant in Colorado?: Cabin Creek in Clear Creek County, Colorado is the largest, at 300 MW. It came online in 1967.
How many hydro power plants were built in Colorado in 2025?: 0 hydro power plants came online in Colorado in 2025, with 0 MW of capacity.
Who is developing hydro power plants in Colorado?: Interconnection queues list each project under a project company, not the developer behind it. Cleanview researches the developer of every project and has them on paid plans.