It can work, this renewable energy stuff.
The announcement that a number of energy companies are to plough £2.2 billion into building the London Array windfarm is proof of that.
It is also proof these schemes can be built without harm to the natural environment.
At first glance a massive – and it is properly big this one – windfarm in the Thames Estuary seems like something the RSPB might oppose. It seems a fair assumption, especially when you learn the initial site surveys found it was home to a large and previously unknown population of red-throated divers.
But then you know what assumption did.
From the start, the developers worked closely with us to find a way of building their windfarm without robbing the birds of their habitat.
The result was an agreement that the scheme would be built in stages, with the first to the south of the site, well away from the divers. A close eye will be kept on the birds during and after construction to make sure they are not disturbed.
So built in stage, but built nonetheless. There should be power flowing ashore from the London Array by 2012. The turbines will produce 623 megawatts, which is a lot.
We badly need schemes like the London Array. We need them to help us move away from fossil fuels and avoid the catastrophic climate change which now threatens. We need them to show how talking early and often to conservationists can get schemes built faster and better.
Above all, we need them to show how we can have clean power and wildlife.
There has to be a world left worth saving after all.