The power of water has been harnessed for thousands of years, with the waterways becoming the primary source of power for the late 18th century Georgian industrial watermills. To meet the industrial scale demand for power, waterways of the UK were saturated with mills and weirs, and the waterwheel was improved by engineers such as William Strutt and Thomas Hewes. Despite significant improvements in steam power in the 19th century, suitable sites continued to harness waterpower and added steam, in a hybrid form, to meet additional power demand.

The late 19th century saw waterpower being used to generate electricity for lighting, transport and eventually power. Many more sites, e.g. country houses and industry, self-generated hydroelectric power 100 years ago in the Derbyshire Derwent catchment, than do today. Despite the need to produce more renewable energy to mitigate climate change, mill owners and local communities wishing to reinstate or develop new HEP projects today face challenges. There are lessons to learn about Georgian river stewardship that could help to overcome these challenges from competing interests, to allow local, sustainable, green energy generation using existing historic infrastructure.