Ecotricity

Ecotricity

Type	Limited company
Industry	Energy
Founded	1995
Headquarters	Stroud, England
Key people	Dale Vince, founder
Products	Wind energy projects Biogas
Website	http://www.ecotricity.co.uk

Ecotricity is a green energy company based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England specialising in selling and generating wind power. It is built on the principle of heavily reinvesting its profit in building more of its own windfarms.

History

An Ecotricity wind turbine at Green Park Business Park, Reading, England, generating green electricity for approx 1000 homes.

Ecotricity was started by Dale Vince in 1995, with a single wind turbine he had used to power an old army truck he called home on a hill near Stroud in Gloucestershire, England.

From this Dale went on to commercially build Wind monitoring equipment (which the company still does to day using the name Nexgen) from there they went on to having their own Wind turbines, starting with a 40 metre turbine in the early 1990s which at the time was the largest in the country.

In a survey of green energy companies The Ecologist magazine reported that in 2004 Ecotricity invested over £900 per customer on new Enercon wind turbines, more than 100 times the amount invested per customer by Powergen, Npower and Scottish Power, all of whom market themselves as green energy suppliers. That amount also compares favourably with several other green energy suppliers such as Green Energy or Good Energy, who make no direct investment in creating additional renewable energy capacity on the UK electricity grid^{[citation needed]}.

Since 2004, Ecotricity's site, WhichGreen.Org, has cited Ecotricity's contribution to new green energy sources, per customer, as £117 in 2005, £275 in 2006 and £555 in 2007 — with Scottish & Southern Energy, for example, averaging around £10 per customer in the same period.

In 2007 Vince ran a now famous advertisement on the back page of The Guardian newspaper inviting Richard Branson to his place for a solution to climate change and a carbon-free breakfast. The ad ran the day after Branson appeared on TV with Al Gore, who had managed to persuade Branson that climate change was an issue. The ad was written and produced by Host Universal and included Vince’s personal mobile phone number.

Ecotricity was also a winner in the 2007 Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy. The awards congratulated Ecotricity for their environmental contribution, stating that 'The company's turbines are delivering 46 GW·h/yr of renewable electricity and avoiding around 46,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions a year. The installed capacity is expected to double by the end of 2007.'

In January 2012 it was revealed they have invested in the development of SEARASER pump-to-shore wave energy machines

Fuel mix

Ecotricity's proportion of renewable energy rose from 24.1% in 2007 to 51.1% in 2011 (compared with a national average of 7.9%), with a further increase to 60% expected in 2012

In the past, a substantial proportion of the electricity (25.9% in 2007) sold by Ecotricity to customers came from nuclear sources, which help reduce carbon emissions. This proportion had decreased to 16% by 2010, and 2.6% by 2011.

Ecotricity also provide a 100% renewable energy tariff 'New Energy Plus' in which renewable energy is bought in from other suppliers to top up renewable energy produced by Ecotricity.

Ecotricity also produces solar energy, with its first 'sun park' coming onstream in 2011.

From May 2010 they became the first UK company to supply eco-friendly gas (produced in The Netherlands by Anaerobic digestion of Sugar beet waste)

Side projects

Greenbird

Ecotricity is the sponsor of the Ecotricity Greenbird, a wind-powered vehicle that set a new world land speed record for wind-powered vehicles on March 26, 2009 on the dry Lake Ivanpah.

Nemesis

Ecotricity has built a custom Electric sport car called 'Nemesis' that was built as a demonstration of what electric cars are capable of: an endurance trip from Land's End to John o' Groats is planned; in this trip they will only recharge from electricity produced by wind power.

Vehicle recharging

In July 2011 they announced their Vehicle charging network that will be sited at Welcome Break service stations and their turbine in Reading, they will be equipped with both a uk standard 13amp domestic socket and a high power IEC 62196 32amp 3-phase socket.

Ecotricity are to build Wind Turbines and vehicle fast-charging at RoadChef sites across the UK to allow vehicles to recharge directly from the wind.

In July 2011 it was announced that they will be providing fast and normal electric vehicle charging stations at 14 of the Welcome Break service stations, linking London in the south with Exeter in the west and Edinburgh in the north.

Tractor

For their next vehicle project they plan to work on an Electric tractor

Controversy

In July 2009, Ecotricity started legal proceedings against French power company EDF Energy for the alleged misuse of the Green Union Flag logo, used to promote their Team Green Britain campaign. Ecotricity had previously used a green Union flag in their own advertising and claimed that confused customers had contacted them to ask why the company was co-operating with EDF.

Ecotricity have an on-going war of words with fellow green supplier Good Energy based on the criticism that Good Energy do not invest in Green power generation directly (though they do invest and upkeep their own wind farm).Template:Citation not reliable, consider removing paragraph

In Grainthorpe in Lincolnshire on January 8, 2009 two of the blades of one of the company's turbines were damaged.

In the year to 30 April 2011 Ecotricity owner Dale Vince purchased a 71% shareholding in football club Forest Green Rovers F.C. at a cost of £695,000. Dale Vince is the company's main Director and only shareholder and is now Chairman of the football club. He used his influence to ban all red meat being sold at the club and to use manure on the pitch, creating the only organic football pitch in the world.

In the year to 30 April 2011 Ecotricity also made Directors' loans of £496,719, interest free. There are only two Directors - Dale Vince and Kate Vince.

See also

• Green electricity in the United Kingdom
• Wind power in the United Kingdom
• Energy policy of the United Kingdom
• Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom
• Swaffham
• Wind farm

External links

• Ecotricity Website
• Ecologist article on "green" energy
• WhichGreen: Ecotricity's league table for green energy suppliers
• 'National Consumer Report: Reality or rhetoric? Green tariffs for domestic consumers.
• www.electricityinfo.org
• Association for Environment Conscious Building: The Green Electricity Illusion
• Zerocarbonista.com - Blog by Ecotricity's founder - Dale Vince