Special Report on the Electricity Industry: The future of the alternative sources: Catherine Stansfield looks at the development of fuels other than gas and coal

'GENTLEMEN, the chain reaction is self sustaining,' were the words used by Professor Enrico Fermi to tell the physicists he was working with that the world's first contained nuclear reaction was running in a disused squash court at the University of Chicago on 2 December 1942.

It was developed into a source of electricity that in an age of diminishing fossil fuel reserves was seen as a miracle fuel - virtually inexhaustible and no pollution. Electricity too cheap to meter was envisaged. Fifty years on, accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl have left nuclear power with a tarnished image. Originally it was intended to privatise all of Britain's generating capacity but it became clear that the huge decommissioning costs made Nuclear Power unattractive to prospective investors and they remain under state control.

Fast breeder reactors - using fast neutrons and creating more nuclear fuel than they consume - once seen as the future for nuclear fuel, may have had their day. Britain's fast breeder, Dounreay, is scheduled for closure in 1994. Nuclear power's share will decline over the next 10 years as the old Magnox reactors reach the end of their life, and the only plant in construction is Sizewell B.

With nuclear power at best on hold, alternatives - high tech versions of the oldest power sources - seem set for take-off. East Anglia is dotted with earlier examples of windmills, the Industrial Revolution started rolling with water power and Woodbridge has had a tide-mill for centuries.

Transatlantic winds and a change in EC farm subsidies have led some farmers in Wales and the West Country to prefer wind farms to sheep. To generate 1,000 megawatts of power, 49 wind farms are planned for the turn of the century, but development is slowed by the knowledge that the Non Fossil Fuel Obligation (NFFO) runs out in 1998 and the guaranteed prices will not be there for long enough to give a return on capital costs.

The sea would seem an obvious resource for Britain to exploit. Wave energy, if properly harnessed, could provide up to a third of our electricity needs. More than 300 patents have been filed in Britain for machines to do just that. In 1976, the Government thought wave energy was 'the most attractive of the renewable sources' but in 1982 a government report stated that investment in wave power was not likely to give such large returns as nuclear power and research money disappeared. The publication of the Renewable Energy Advisory Group's report is eagerly awaited, to see where Government funding will now be targeted.

Waves can vary but tides are reliable. Islay has a power station that harnesses the daily tides. More attractive still is capturing the power in the Severn Bore. There have been plans to build a barrage across the Severn Estuary since the middle of the last century, but any barrage would drastically change the local ecosystem and environmental considerations have so far come first.

Hydroelectricity has been commercially exploited for some time. In Scotland, Hydro-Electric is one of the generating companies. Large-scale hydroelectric plants take large capital sums to build and may have a high environmental price but are very cheap to run. Work is being done on mini-hydros, where a much smaller drop is needed; these would not replace large power plants but could supply small communities.

Concern over global warming and acid rain will ensure the development of renewable resources. Gas and Coal will continue to be the big boys but a sizeable percentage of 'alternative' sources will appear.