IEE Science, Education & Technology Division: Chairman´s address. Looking for alternatives

The search for alternative ways of generating and transmitting electricity has always been of concern in the electricity-supply industry. Sometimes this search has proved successful¿¿more often, not. This paper deals with alternative energy sources that are being considered today, with direct energy-conversion processes that were topical twenty years ago and with novel techniques in the power-transmission field, concentrating on ones in which the author has been closely involved: MHD generation, thermoelectrics, HVDC, SF6 circuit breakers, hydrogen transmission, wave power and wind power.