> hydro energy resources

What is a hydro energy resource, a river? Don't lots of countries have rivers?

(If we're talking about hydroelectric power plants they've chosen to build, that's not exactly a resource -- and other countries could choose to build those too, right?)

Not just a river, a river plus either an elevation drop or a drownable valley.

A river winding along a flat plain is not a hydro energy resource. A river in the same valley as your capital city is not a hydro energy resource.

Building hydro energy requires a very specific geography. You can't just take any river and turn it into an efficient hydroplant.

You need both the right geography and a lack of either people or democracy in the place you want to build it. That rules out new large hydro projects in most of Europe.

Norway has really a lots of rivers with lots of potential energy of the water, since it comes from the mountains at high altitude (Fjords).

Some big slow moving river in a flat land on the other hand is not helping you here.