ASA Adjudication on RWE npower plc

Ad

A circular entitled "Wind Power News" showed a photograph of four wind turbines in some fields; text underneath stated "Update to Nun Wood Wind Farm The facts about wind power on the Three Shires Border ... Security of supply We know that 'By around 2020, the UK is likely to have seen decommissioning of coal and nuclear plants that together generate over 30% of today's electricity supply' 'By 2025, if current policy is unchanged... we will become 80/90% dependent on foreign (gas) imports.' - Prime Minister Tony Blair in speech to CBI ... Wind farms vs HGVs .... According to our figures the wind farm would offset an amount of CO2 equivalent to removing at least 18,857 cars a year from the roads around Nun Wood* ... Cost of electricity set to rocket? ... npower launched the pioneering juice tariff in 2001 to enable domestic customers to purchase electricity that has been generated solely from renewable sources ... House prices ... The most significant survey into the effect of wind farms on house prices was conducted by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) of estate agents across the UK. It showed that there was little impact on house prices. Those respondents that did report a slight negative impact to the RICS noted that it was predominantly during the planning stage of a wind farm development ... The results also imply that any impact reduces over time once a wind farm has been constructed" Small print at the bottom of the ad stated "* this is based on a 1.4 litre Ford Focus travelling 12,000 miles p/a, emissions data taken from Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) Note - National Grid Transco's Seven Year Statement 2004 indicated that an appropriate carbon dioxide emissions offset factor for electricity generated by wind power is in the region of 860g CO2/kWh. Whilst the offset figure will change as the generation mix changes, if it is being assumed that coal plant is being displaced then the wind farm would currently offset approximately 66,800 tonnes of CO2/year when compared with fossil fuel generation."

Issue

Bozeat and Lavendon Oppose Turbines (BLOT) challenged whether:

1. the photograph gave a misleading impression of the visual impact of the proposed Nun Wood wind farm;

2. the claim "'By 2025, if current policy is unchanged... we will become 80/90% dependent on foreign (gas) imports.' - Prime Minister Tony Blair in speech to CBI" was misleading, because it did not appear in the speech it was attributed to;

3. the claim "the wind farm would offset an amount of CO2 equivalent to removing at least 18,857 cars a year from the roads around Nun Wood" was misleading, because the car on which the figure was based, the Ford Focus, was not an average car in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions;

4. the claims "the wind farm would offset an amount of CO2 equivalent to removing at least 18,857 cars a year from the roads around Nun Wood*" and "the wind farm would currently offset approximately 66,800 tonnes of CO2/year when compared with fossil fuel generation" were misleading, because the load factor used to calculate those figures was not realistic for Nun Wood, which was situated in a moderate wind area;

5. the claim "18,857 cars a year" was misleading because it implied that, each year the wind farm was operational, the CO2 emissions of 18,857 cars would be offset, whereas BLOT believed the amount of CO2 reduction the figure equated to was not reliable on a long-term basis;

6. the claim "npower launched the pioneering juice tariff in 2001 to enable domestic customers to purchase electricity that has been generated solely from renewable sources" was misleading, because the juice tariff did not allow customers to purchase electricity solely from renewable sources and

7. the claims "It showed that there was little impact on house prices" and "Those respondents that did report a slight negative impact to the RICS ..." were misleading, because they believed the survey to which they referred gave no indication of the level of impact.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. npower renewables (npower) said the photograph on the front page of the circular was of a wind farm on the Isle of Anglesey and was not intended to be, or referred to as, an accurate depiction of how the proposed Nun Wood wind farm would look. They believed the people of Nun Wood would clearly realise the photograph was not of their area but of an operational site and the circular made clear the Nun Wood site was non-operational. They said the wind turbines in the photograph were only 35 - 40 metres high and much smaller than the 125-metre high turbines planned for Nun Wood; they believed it would be very difficult to confuse a 35- to 40-metre high wind turbine with one 85- to 90-metres higher.

npower asserted that the photograph was indicative of large scale wind energy development and believed it was more helpful to include it than to use no photograph. They said they had no proprietary rights over images of turbines the exact size of those proposed for Nun Wood. They sent two photomontages of how they believed the turbines would look at Nun Wood; they argued that the difference in height of the turbines in the photomontages and the photograph used was not significant and therefore the photograph would not mislead.

2. npower said the quote was taken from a speech by Tony Blair to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) on 16 May 2006 and sent a transcript of the speech from the Downing Street website. They said they had abridged the quote and sent the full text, which stated " ... By 2025, if current policy is unchanged, there will be a dramatic gap on our targets to reduce CO2 emissions; we will become heavily dependent on gas; and at the same time move from being 80/90%, self-reliant in gas to 80/90% dependent on foreign imports, mostly from the Middle East and Africa and Russia ...".

3. npower said they chose to base the CO2 offset figure on a Ford Focus because it was the most popular car in the UK and a car that the majority of people were aware of; as such they believed it would help people understand the extent of the environmental benefits of the proposed wind farm. They pointed out that they had made clear in the ad the basis for their calculations. They also pointed out that, according to the HM Treasury website, the average carbon emissions for new cars in the UK in 2005 was 170 g/km; that was only 11 g/km more than the Ford Focus figure of 159 g/km. They argued that to base the calculation on an average figure for cars in Britain could confuse readers, because it would not be clear which type and size of vehicles were included in the calculation. They also believed it would be difficult for people to relate to the type of car that would produce emissions comparable to the average emissions quoted.

npower explained that they had based their calculation for the number of Ford Focus cars on the wind farm offsetting 57,900 tonnes of CO2 per year, not the 66,800 tonnes stated in the ads footnote. They pointed out that, by using that lower figure, the number of cars stated in the ad was lower than it would have been had they used the maximum potential offset of the wind farm in the calculation; they believed they had therefore under-represented the wind farms potential environmental benefit.

4. npower said the figures for Nun Wood were based on an assumed regional capacity factor of 24% taken from the March 2006 Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) Energy Trends Statistics Bulletin. They said it was not layout specific and was based on an assumed 32MW site. They asserted that, when no site-specific data was available, it was standard procedure to use the regional capacity factor in the DTIs Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) and apply that figure to the proposed number and capacity of turbines at the site; for Nun Wood they had used the average capacity factor provided by DUKES for sites specifically in the East of England. They argued that, at the time the circular was produced, on-site wind data was insufficient to do a robust site-specific calculation, because to get an accurate capacity factor for a specific site, 12 to 18 months of wind data was recommended. npower said they had used the figure from DUKES so that they could supply local people and press with information during the consultation process whilst site-specific data was being collected. They argued that the figures referred to in the circular were estimates based on those parameters and that that was made clear by the use of the words "approximately" and "at least".

5. npower referred to an ASA adjudication from December 2005. They pointed out that they had indicated in the small print of the ad that the offset figure was likely to change as the generation mix changed and believed therefore they were in line with the previous ASA ruling.

6. npower pointed out that they had stated in the ad that the electricity was being "purchased" from renewable sources and said the claim was included in the ad to respond to allegations that the cost of electricity from wind farms was greater than that from other sources. They asserted that the purpose of that section of the ad was to provide assurances that npower's juice product was no more expensive than their 'standard' electricity tariff. They said the section did not focus on explaining what the juice tariff was or state or imply that electricity was supplied from renewable electricity.

7. npower said they had referenced the national RICS survey because they believed it was the most relevant to the Nun Wood area. They argued that, by stating "The results also imply that any impact reduces over time once a wind farm has been constructed", they had admitted that the RICS had seen an effect on house prices; they believed that negated any potential for the overall paragraph to mislead.

npower sent the RICS survey and pointed out that the RICS had sent out a total of 1,942 questionnaires. Only 405 people responded; of those 405 respondents only 20% (or 81 agents) said they had dealt with residential transactions affected by wind farms and of those, 60% said they noticed a negative impact. They pointed out that that was a total of approximately 48 estate agents or 2.5% of the original number of agents asked to respond. They argued therefore that the RICS survey was by no means conclusive and showed that the overall impact on houses across the study area, i.e. the UK, was low.

They asserted that the statement also reflected other information on the effect of wind farms on property prices and sent two other surveys which, they believed, showed either that house prices were unaffected or that it was almost impossible to conclude whether there was an impact or not. They asserted that one of the surveys (for Gamesa Energy UK) made a quantitative assessment of property prices close to the Taff Ely wind farm and had found that there was no detrimental effect on local property prices. npower therefore argued that the statement in the circular was correct when applied to the Gamesa survey and the local properties it covered but should not have been attributed to the RICS survey.

Assessment

1. Upheld

The ASA noted the photograph was of an operational wind farm site with turbines that were 80 - 90 metres smaller than those proposed for the Nun Wood site. We considered that readers were likely to believe the photograph represented how the Nun Wood site would look if it was to be built. Because the turbines in the photograph were around a third of the height of those planned for Nun Wood and because the ad did not make clear the substantial difference in height between the turbines in the photograph and the planned turbines, we considered that the photograph was likely to mislead.

We noted the two photomontages sent by npower showed how they believed the Nun Wood site would look. We considered, however, that because the turbines in the photomontages were viewed from much further away than the turbines in the photograph, it was not possible to conclude that the difference in height of the turbines in the photomontages and the photograph was insignificant.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clause 7.1 (Truthfulness).

2. Upheld

We noted the claim was an abridged quote taken from a speech given by Tony Blair to the CBI in May 2006. We considered that the abridged quote implied that, by the year 2025, 80-90% of all energy would be foreign gas imports; however, we considered that the full text of the quote made the point that, by the year 2025, Britain would be largely dependent on gas, 80-90% of which would be foreign imports. We considered that, although the claim appeared in the speech to which it was attributed, it misrepresented the full quote and was therefore misleading.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).

3. Not upheld

We noted npower had made clear the basis for their calculations and had chosen the Ford Focus because it was the most popular car in the UK and a car that the majority of people were aware of; we noted the ad did not state that a Ford Focus was an average car in terms of CO2 emissions. We noted the average level of car CO2 emissions from the HM Treasury website was only 11 g/km more than the emissions of the Focus. We also noted from the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) website that, although the Ford Focus produced lower levels of CO2 emissions than many cars in Britain, there were a number of other cars that produced significantly lower CO2 emissions than the Ford Focus. We noted that, if npower had used the average car emissions figure of 170 g/km in their calculation, the number of cars they could have claimed would be removed from the road was 17,714 with the 57,900 tonnes CO2 offset figure and 20,436 with the 66,800 tonnes CO2 offset figure. We considered that the figure of 17,714 was not significantly different from the 18,857 figure given in the ad, especially in the context of a comparison with the figure of "just 3 HGVs". We also noted the claim was based on a CO2 offset figure of 57,900 tonnes, not 66,800 tonnes, and the number of cars that would be removed from the road based on the average car emissions figure and the 66,800 CO2 offset figure was greater than the number of cars stated in the ad.

We considered that consumers would be aware that large, high-powered cars generally produced more CO2 than smaller cars. We also considered that consumers were likely to be aware of the size of a Ford Focus and to understand that it was likely to produce lower levels of CO2 than larger cars. We considered that to use a specific model of car made clear to consumers exactly what was being used as the basis of the calculation. We concluded that the claim was unlikely to mislead.

On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness) but did not find it in breach.

4. Upheld

We noted npower had based their claim on information from the DTI which, they asserted, was standard procedure when site-specific data was not available. We considered, however, that the claims "the wind farm would offset an amount of CO2 equivalent to removing at least 18,857 cars a year from the roads around Nun Wood*" and "the wind farm would currently offset approximately 66,800 tonnes of CO2/year" would be seen as referring to the Nun Wood wind farm, not to wind farms in the East of England generally, and therefore implied that the figures had been calculated using specific data from the Nun Wood area. Because the figures were based on the capacity factor of wind farms in the East of England generally, and not on specific data from the Nun Wood area, we considered that the claims were misleading.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 49.1 (Environmental claims).

5. Upheld

We noted the previous ASA adjudication that npower had referred to indicated that it was reasonable to use an emissions factor of 860 g CO2/kWh to calculate the reduction of CO2 emissions at the present time but that was not a reasonable figure to use for calculating the reduction over a period as long as 25 years unless there was some qualification to indicate the uncertainties about future fuel generating mix. We welcomed the qualification " ... the offset figure will change as the generation mix changes ..." at the foot of the ad but considered that the claim "equivalent to removing at least 18,857 cars a year", in the body of the ad, implied that the wind farm would offset the CO2 emissions of 18,857 cars each year it was operational. Because that was unlikely to be the case, we considered that the footnote contradicted the primary claim "18,857 cars a year" and that the claim was therefore misleading.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 49.1 (Environmental claims).

6. Upheld

We noted npower's argument that the ad did not mention the supply of electricity on the juice tariff and stated only that electricity was being purchased from renewable sources. We considered, however, that the claim "to enable domestic customers to purchase electricity that has been generated solely from renewable sources" implied that all the electricity customers purchased on the juice tariff came directly from renewable sources. We understood that that was not the case: instead npower sourced from renewable sources an equivalent amount of electricity to that used by customers on the juice tariff. We concluded that the claim was misleading.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 49.1 (Environmental claims).

7. Upheld

We noted the Gamesa survey looked at property prices local to the Taff Ely wind farm but also noted the circular referred only to the RICS survey. We noted the figures from the RICS survey showed that only 81 of the 405 respondents had dealt with residential transactions affected by wind farms but that 60% of those 81 reported that residential property values were lower for properties where a wind farm was visible from the property than for comparable properties where a wind farm was not visible. We noted the study did not include information on how much lower those property values were. We also noted the survey stated "In interpreting the results of the survey no attempt has been made to make a quantitative assessment of the impact of wind farm developments on the residential property market" and did not refer to the level or amount of impact respondents had seen. We considered that the claims "It showed that there was little impact on house prices" and "Those respondents that did report a slight negative impact to the RICS ..." implied that the RICS survey included results on the level of impact of wind farms on house prices and had found that the level of impact was very low. Because that was not the case, we concluded that the claims were misleading.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).

Action

We told npower not to use the photograph of the Isle of Anglesey wind farm again in marketing for the Nun Wood site and to ensure any future images in similar advertising were representative of the site in question. We also told them to either remove the claim "'By 2025, if current policy is unchanged ... we will become 80/90% dependent on foreign (gas) imports.' - Prime Minister Tony Blair in speech to CBI" or amend it to include the full text of the quote and to ensure any quotes they used in future were not taken out of context. We told them to remove the claims "the wind farm would offset an amount of CO2 equivalent to removing at least 18,857 cars a year from the roads around Nun Wood*" and "the wind farm would currently offset approximately 66,800 tonnes of CO2/year" unless the calculations the claims were based on included site-specific data. We told npower not to imply in the body copy of future ads that the amount of CO2 that would be offset by a wind farm would be the same each year the wind farm was operational. We told npower to make clear in future similar advertising that the electricity customers purchased on the juice tariff did not come directly from renewable sources. We also told them to remove the claims "It showed that there was little impact on house prices" and "Those respondents that did report a slight negative impact to the RICS ..." when referring to the RICS survey and to make sure they accurately reflected the results of other surveys when referring to them.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)