As oil and gas resources dwindle and the urgency to reduce CO₂ emissions increases, hydropower and aquathermal systems offer sustainable alternatives for producing electricity and for cooling and heating buildings. Yet the potential for utilising these systems in many developing countries has not been properly explored and they are currently not considered to be economically feasible. This means the opportunity to service a wide range of activities, such as irrigation, (waste)water treatment, agricultural services and food processing, electric mobility, telecommunication and even healthcare and education, via these sustainable systems is being missed.