York is set to make its mark this Christmas in a step that will leave other UK cities green with envy. In a nation-wide first, sponsored by npower the national essential services provider with Northern Electric, York will be the UK's first city to have its Christmas lights powered by renewable energy.

The sponsorship supports the groundbreaking Planet York? concept, currently running in the city to raise awareness of the importance of energy efficiency. It is expected that in excess of 400,000 people visiting York city centre in the run up to Christmas will see the lights.

Says Matthew Thomas from npower: "In supporting the Planet York1 campaign and running the York Christmas lights with renewable energy, we want to inform people that by opting to use clean electricity, we can all make a real difference in helping the environment. Choosing to go green can be easy and at the same cost as your ordinary electricity tariff - but people often don't know how to go about it, so the York Christmas lights gives us a great chance to help inform people ."

For the first time, you can now get electricity from clean, renewable sources at no extra cost from Juice, the pioneering joint venture between npower and Greenpeace providing the UK with green electricity with no added premium. Juice will harness Britain's greatest resource, wind at sea, to supply up to 50,000 domestic electricity customers anywhere in the UK from the North Hoyle Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of North Wales

Until construction of the wind farm is complete in 2003, subject to planning permission, Juice supplies will flow from existing on-shore wind sources and an established hydro plant based in Wales, which uses the plentiful natural supply of water to generate electricity.

npower has been working closely with the First Stop York tourism partnership, which includes local businesses, shops and City of York council, to plan and design the Christmas city lights, which will be officially switched on November 15 2001.

Sally Slack, retail representative from York Chamber of Commerce, says: "So many local people have been working hard to bring these lights to reality and now they're here. It really helps to make York the number one destination in the region for Christmas shopping and entertainment this year."

Further details about the official 'switch-on' of York Christmas lights will be issued nearer to the 'switch-on'. In the meantime, York residents wishing to find out more about Juice, can log onto www.npower.com/juice or call the hotline on 0800 316 2610. - ends -

Notes to editors:

Planet York is running for a year and offers residents and businesses the opportunity to make a real impact on the local environment whilst setting the standard for the rest of the UK and beyond.

The project is run in partnership by the Energy Saving Trust, the City of York Council, the York Evening Press and local partners. The driving force behind the campaign is to highlight the need for us all to change our behaviour in order to stop wasting energy and through that, reduce the impact of climate change. Visit www.planetyork.co.uk for tips and advice on energy efficiency.

The new npower Christmas lights will be appearing at: Fossgate, Coney Street, Daveygate, Parliament Street, Low Petergate, High Petergate and Micklegate, plus three city centre Christmas trees in St. Leonard's Place, St Helen's Square and Parliament Street.

npower is the gas and electricity retail business of Innogy, the new FTSE 100 company created from the UK-based energy businesses of National Power. It supplies gas and electricity to 7 million domestic and business customers across the country and has over 2,500 employees.

npower launched Juice it's clean electricity in August 2001. Juice will allow residential customers anywhere in the UK the opportunity to purchase clean electricity generated by the wind at sea. By 2003, Juice will be sourced from the proposed North Hoyle Offshore Wind Farm which, subject to planning permission, will be built 4-5 miles off the coast of North Wales by National Wind Power, npower's sister company and the UK's leading wind power developer

Until then, Juice supplies will flow from existing on-shore wind sources and a hydro plant based in Dolgarrog in the Snowdonia Mountains, which uses the plentiful natural supply of water to generate electricity.

The Government has a target of meeting 10% of the country's energy from renewable sources by 2010 (currently less than 3%). The development of both offshore and on shore wind power projects will play an important role in meeting these targets.

npower's parent company, Innogy plc, is one of the UK's leaders in the development and generation of green energy. It continues to invest heavily in a range of renewable energy schemes.

npower is the title sponsor of home Test cricket, the ITV programme 'The Bill' and official partner of the FA Premiership.