During the present cold spell the Bradworthy wind turbines have been at a virtual standstill, so it is just as well we were not reliant upon them to heat our homes or cook our meals.

Another wind farm is now proposed at Dunsland Cross (Brandis Corner) and a dubious claim by the developer (Bolsterstone UK) is that the four 105 metre high turbines will produce enough energy for 4,000 homes — but obviously not when most needed!

According to a more well known power company E'ON: "When wind is used to generate electricity, intermittency can be a problem. Since it is unlikely to be calm simultaneously over a large area, one way to make intermittency less of a problem is to have a portfolio of wind farms spread over a wide geographical area."

How wide a geographical area do they envisage? I have news for them, most of the UK was also gripped in an icy calm during the last 10 days or so and it was just as well that good old fossil fuel and nuclear generated power was still available.

Being a foreign-based EU company I suppose they mean we could buy wind generated power from the continent (which incidentally was also experiencing predominantly cold calm conditions), but the transmission distance would probably deplete this theoretical supply to a trickle.

Even if 10,000 2MW wind turbines were erected in Devon we would still have needed an alternative reliable source of energy to prevent hypothermia. Quite clearly wind driven power stations are useless without wind — no wind, no heat, no good!

The sooner they build more nuclear power stations at Hinkley Point the better, meanwhile I will burn as much wind farm prospectus material as possible on my multi-fuel stove and bask in the hot air it produces.

Ashwater.