Page 30 - Phonebox Magazine October 2009

What Standards? What Authority?
Two years ago an advertisement appeared in Phonebox, placed by BLEW (Bucks Lacks Enough Wind). BLEW opposed a wind energy development at Petsoe End, near Emberton. The advertisement gave reasons why Your Energy Ltd. should not be permitted to erect these turbines:
G building wind turbines in low mean wind speed areas doesn’t make sense, because electricity generated and carbon emissions avoided are lower than in higher wind speed areas. [The government’s wind speed database gives a mean wind speed of 6.3 metres for this site at 45 metres above ground level. A leading UK wind energy expert has said: “It’s crazy to build windfarms in the Milton Keynes area.”];
G such developments will operate at well under 30% of their rated capacity, and may struggle to achieve much over 20%. [In 2007 the nearest modern wind energy development achieved a capacity factor of 22%]
G BLEW complained no-one was allowed to see the wind energy data Your Energy had collected – which turned out to be due to a senior planning official in Milton Keynes Council (since retired) withholding the data;
G our money, as domestic and business electricity users, subsidises Your Energy’s wind energy development – about 60% of UK wind energy development revenues come from such subsidies, total revenues annually being around £600 million currently – which can cost up to £90 per household or more. Your Energy seeks, from our electricity bills, well over £200,000 subsidy per turbine, per year, for Petsoe End. BLEW sought value for money and support only for worthwhile schemes;
G underperforming developments, supported by these subsidies, push electricity costs up. Without the subsidies no-one would
erect turbines in this area. Such investments lead to inefficient energy infrastructure, a less competitive UK, and waste of subsidies; and
G four other issues were raised - spoiling local views, the countryside, and tranquillity.
The advertisement quoted its sources – a BBC Radio 4 programme and newspaper articles. Your Energy still challenged BLEW to substantiate its claims, complaining to the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Your Energy challenged the claim that a capacity factor of under 30% was “inefficient” (a BBC interviewer’s word, specialists prefer “ineffective”). They claimed the advertisement stated £600 million was paid to wind developers in annual subsidy – when it clearly referred to total revenues, not just subsidies. They stated their windspeed data had been sent to Milton Keynes Council -when the ASA tried to explore this, Your Energy failed to reply and the Council gave evasive answers.
BLEW considered their sources robust, referring the ASA to the BBC programme and two specialists interviewed in the programme – one of them this writer. By July, 2008, the ASA investigator (Cheryl May Thompson) had drafted her adjudication and concluded the advertisers had failed to substantiate their claims. By now, the main supporters of BLEW were embroiled in a judicial review which took precedence over further substantiating a one-off advertisement. Without any attempt to contact me or Jim Oswald, another specialist quoted, the ASA released their flawed adjudication on September 3, 2008. I became aware of it in May, 2009.
I have since taken the ASA to task, and they have not disagreed with any of the facts I brought to their attention:
G the ASA were negligent (Vena Raffle, ASA Head of Investigations, didn’t like that reasonable challenge) in not noticing Your Energy had changed the wording of the advertisement from £600 million in revenues to £600 million in subsidies;
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30 Phonebox Magazine