Huffing and puffing

An engineer who installed a mini wind turbine in his home at a cost of £13000 will see the technology pay for itself in as little as 2,768 years, reports The Times

Yes, you read that correctly - two thousand seven hundred and sixty eight years to recoup his £13,000 investment. In a little under 6 millennia he'll have doubled his money!

Except, of course, it won't last that long. The wind turbine will expire long before Mr Large has recouped his costs - or the "green" costs of producing it, transporting it and installing it.

Martin Cotterill, of Sundog Energy, said that, although turbines generally worked well in exposed places, it was difficult to find suitable sites in urban areas because of turbulence and obstructions blocking the wind. He said that it was a common misconception that wind that was sufficient to make the blades go round would always generate power. “Just because a turbine is turning does not necessarily mean it’s a turbine generating,” he said.

You don't say. So even though that lone, incongruous, gargantuan monstrosity I see beside the M25 every day may actually be turning, it doesn't actually mean it's doing anything? And the Enviornazis want to carpet the rest of our green and pleasant land with more and more of these monstrosities that may not necessarily be generating anything.

In a final comment that either demonstrates typical British stoicism or proves that there is one born every minute, Mr Large says ....

“I’m undaunted,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been sold a pup but it’s not a bad experience — it’s a learning experience. Maybe I was a little bit ambitious.”

I'm off to Woolwich to see if I can interst Mr Large in a portfolio of cast-iron investment opportunites that will see a return on his £100,000 in a little under 10 lifetimes.