Save Wigtown Bay, the action group formed to oppose plans for the
‘California’ windfarm near Carsluith, claim renewable energy company
Ecotricity, the proposers, are misleading its customers on its website,
something they strongly deny.
According to Ecotricity’s website, they provide the greenest energy in
Britain based on the life-cycle emissions of their supply – 100% Green
Electricity and the only energy company in Britain to supply green gas.
Save Wigtown Bay Chairman Martin Green commented: “This statement is wildly
inaccurate and disingenuous. Ecotricity cannot control the source of the
power their customers pay for. They have not got independent grid
connections from their turbines direct to its customers’ homes. The power
Ecotricity’s customers pay for is supplied from the National Grid, which is
generated by a mix of gas, coal, nuclear and renewable. We also know that
if the wind isn’t blowing, there could be no power available from its or
any other wind operator’s turbines. The entire statement is farcical and
Dale Vince should not be allowed to publish such careless spin.
“Ecotricity would not be in business without grants and subsidies, which
we, the end consumer, are actually paying for. It is time people woke up to
this fact. We call on Dale Vince to visit the people of The Machars and
tell them exactly why his ‘California’ industrial turbine site is needed in
the area. So far, he has declined our invitations. Maybe, by highlighting
these more wide reaching errors, we might pique his interest to set the
record straight – in person. We welcome a man who is purporting a ‘cow tax’
to leave his Cotswold fortress and visit our agricultural area which is
highly dependent on cattle.”
An Ecotricity spokesperson said: “The Committee of Advertising Practice
(CAP), who are responsible for vetting what companies say about their
products and services, have approved the fact that Ecotricity have
‘Britain’s greenest energy’.
“Green electricity is always going to be better for the environment than
conventional electricity, from fossil fuels and nuclear sources – which the
Big Six and most independent companies supply. But not all green
electricity is equal – some sources of it have a lower impact than others.
“The right way to measure this is through lifecycle carbon emissions, it’s
a cradle to grave approach, taking into account the impacts of the
manufacture and operation of the equipment in question – on a per unit of
energy generated basis.
“Ecotricity provided this evidence to CAP and also describes on our website
the methodology used in preparing these figures along with a list of the
credible sources referenced for the emission factors that we used in our
calculations.
“Mr Green may prefer to power his home with fossil fuels, but as a country
we currently spend £50 billion annually simply to burn coal, oil and gas –
money that mostly flows out of the UK.
“It’s a figure that is half our trade deficit and about £1,800 per
household. Onshore wind on the other hand costs about £8 per household
annually and this actually builds badly needed infrastructure that will
supply energy for decades to come – it’s not simply burnt to power our
immediate needs.
“Most people also don’t know about the Capacity Mechanism was introduced in
December in a bid the encourage the building of new fossil fuel power
stations, this will start by adding £11 to every household bill, but only
54p will go towards building new infrastructure because the majority of the
subsidy was snapped up by existing power stations.”
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