The 30-mile stretch off our coast identified by the Crown Estate as one possible site for renewable power generation shows that alternative sources of energy are finally becoming serious business.

With fossil fuel prices rising and the generation of electricity becoming more costly, it's about time we looked properly into harnessing what is natural to meet our needs.

The environmental argument aside, the fact is that one day coal, oil and gas reserves are going to run out, or at least become prohibitively expensive to extract.

And while we might always be able to split the atom if uranium is readily available, the lethal by-products of nuclear power, its complicated storage and atomic waste taking millions of years to decay make it unwise to develop much further.

The only argument against wind farms, which need thousands of individual turbines to make much of a difference to the National Grid, is aesthetic.

Building a wind farm out to sea takes care of that argument – and I am sure issues with shipping lanes could be easily worked around, even in a stretch of water as famously busy as the English Channel.

The natural advantages of the site identified would be huge. The prevailing winds in this country come from the south-west, and they would hit that area with no obstruction of land such as mountains on a thousand-mile journey from America.

Technology is always marching onward – it is highly likely that if such a plan was to be put in effect years down the line, wind turbines would be much more efficient at generating electricity than they are at present.

I remember being taken on a school trip around Dungeness nuclear power station in the early 1990s. It might sound silly, but I can see children in later years going on a boat trip to see the wind farms off our coast.

But the best thing about such a plan is we're not ever going to run out of wind, so if we are wise now, we'll never run out of power.