Bord Gais and Airtricity are currently (pun!) locked in a battle to poach residential electricity customers from the ESB.
Airtricity’s electricity is far greener than Bord Gáis’s, coming mainly from wind farms and offshore wind turbines.
So Bord Gais’s FAQs on its TheBigSwith.ie website tries to skirt around the issue, which is tucked away in the final FAQ:
Is Airtricity electricity greener?
16% of the electricity Bord Gáis Energy supplies is from renewable sources and we have recently announced further significant investments in wind farms and a cleaner and more efficient gas power station. Airtricity has a 21% mix of coal, gas, oil and peat in the electricity it supplies.
Exhibit #1: The Bord Gais FAQ
What do you see? Two figures: 16% and 21%. Not much difference there then!
But that’s not what the FAQ is asking! The company deliberately uses a badly designed FAQ instead of a more honest, direct and straightforward one, because then they would have to say something more like…
Is Airtricity electricity greener?
Oops, yes it is!
- 16% of the electricity that we at Bord Gáis supply comes from renewable sources (blah blah blah)
- 79% of Airtricity’s electricity is from renewable sources
