A wind farm developer in Shetland must scrap an advert after it was found to be "misleading".

The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld four complaints against a mailout which was published earlier in the year by Viking Energy.

The leaflet detailed the joint venture plans between the Shetland community and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) to build a 150-turbine, 540MW wind farm on the island which was submitted to the Scottish Government in May.

The watchdog found claims that up to £30m could go into the island economy per year and £18m could be earned by the public purse, were not sufficiently stated as estimates.


The ASA also found claims that 50% of the profits would stay in the Shetland Community to be wrong as 5% included in that figure would go to four local shareholders.

Claims that the volume of pollution caused during construction could be balanced out in less than than three years of wind farm operation were also found to be unsupported.

Allan Wishart, Viking Energy's project co-ordinator, said the company apologised if anyone was misled. He said the firm stands by its figures as they are the best available estimates, but added the presentation was "clumsy".

Vice chairman Sustainable Shetland, Kevin Learmonth, said the ruling cast doubt over the developer's financial and environmental claims.

The authority have banned Viking Energy from using the claims again in its marketing material.

(GK/BMcC)