A dataset of China’s overseas hydropower station projects from 2002 to 2019

Developing countries near China’s Belt and Road Initiative have abundant water resources. However, due to limitations in capital and technology, their water resource utilization is relatively low. At the same time, power shortages are a common problem facing these countries. China has strong capital and rich experience in hydropower project construction, which can provide efficient solutions for the development of water resources in Belt and Road countries. The Belt and Road Initiative has operated for five years, and hydropower project construction cooperation has become an important new way for all parties to cooperate in energy supply. This study collected all available data using network crawler technology from the Belt and Road network, the Belt and Road energy cooperation network, the official websites of major enterprises, and the Ministry of Commerce database. This information was compiled into a dataset of One Belt and One Road hydropower stations from 2002 to 2019, and collected information on 112 hydropower projects, including very large, large, medium, small, and very small types of hydropower stations. The dataset includes the names of the hydropower stations and hydropower projects, their locations, central enterprise groups and secondary units, the initial year of Chinese company construction, year of construction, type of hydropower station, installed capacity, cooperation mode, and the accuracy of positioning on 91 bitmaps. This data is conducive to providing medium and long-term prospects for the construction of hydropower projects along the “Belt and Road”, which is conducive to providing comprehensive and accurate information for government departments and investors.