NOT a cheep, not a whisper, in fact if you strain your ears, all you will hear at the moment, is a truly deafening silence from the wind industry.

Why? because wind power has virtually collapsed since the beginning of June.

Far from "powering" thousands of homes the entire wind array littering our hilltops, trashing our horizons and costing countless billions is providing practically zilch.

The wind drought has pushed up day-ahead power prices to the highest level for the time of year for at least a decade. Apart from a surge expected around June 14, wind levels are forecast to stay low for the next fortnight, according to The Met Office.

A bit of withering deflation for the newly published Growth Commission.

The collapse in output from what are known as "unreliables" could in fact be desperately serious to modern society as we need vast amounts of constant power to keep our schools, infrastructure, factories and hospitals running.

So next time the time the wind industry boasts about its record output, ask them – would you like to be on a life support machine "powered" by wind?

George Herraghty,

Lothlorien, Lhanbryde, Elgin, Moray.