In my country we have about 40% hydroelectric plant. They are reliable. Water mills and tide might be something that started the industry.

Keep in mind that many big cites are located near the ocean. Many benefits from water.

Today many companies throw as much money as they can at renewables. They are simply cheaper but limited the amount of opportunities. Example Google could not find enough clean energy to cover their own footprint. Google have a lot of many that they don’t know what to do and want to be climate neutral for their data centers. It is much faster to put in new energy hungry graphic cards the getting a new power source running.