June '04
ALTERNATIVE POWER SOURCE
'Tis a cold wet Sunday and I've just returned from presenting The Tony Beard Sunday Request Show on BBC Radio Devon.

Another Devon downpour

'Tis bucketing down with rain and the wind is blowing a gale - and on top of all this the 'lectric light' is blinking every five minutes and threatening to go off completely.

All this natural energy going to waste from the wind which is trying its best to blow the house away and take the electricity supply with it. What better time than now to consider alternative energy sources!

Wind Farms? - this seems to be the only alternative being discussed these days.

What controversy it's causing in our local newspaper, The Western Morning News - which has been running a long campaign on the subject - and here on the message boards of BBC Devon Online.

What do you think about windfarms? Have your say on ourmessage board

It appears that the majority of contributors rue the day when the countryside is plastered with these large, highly intrusive to the eye, contraptions. Especially when they may arrive near their own homes.

Having seen, and heard, the ones in Cornwall, the thought of them on the Devon coasts and hills and even worse on Dartmoor or Exmoor fills me with dread.

What is more, their sudden appearance over the horizon as one drives along the beautiful countryside is, I am afraid, ultimately going to be the cause of accidents as drivers take their eyes off the road at the sight of them.

I would like to suggest an alternative which I feel has not been explored enough. Here in the South West we get more than our share of rain, so why not put THAT to good use?

I am going to champion water power.
Not the harness of wave power, as that too is likely to involve more great monstrosities, stood off our lovely beaches and coastline similar to those on the land windfarms.

I want to harness our rivers.......

find out how >>>