april 1996 headquarters stroud england key people dale vince founder products wind energy projects solar energy projects biogas 1 website www.ecotricity.co.uk ecotricity is a green energy company based in stroud gloucestershire england specialising in selling green energy to consumers that it primarily generated from its 70 megawatt 2 wind power portfolio they prefer the term windmill rather than wind turbine . 3 it is built on the principle of heavily reinvesting its profit in building more of its own green energy generation . 4 contents 1 history 2 tariffs 2.1 wind 2.2 solar 2.3 gas 3 side projects 3.1 greenbird 3.2 nemesis 3.3 vehicle recharging 3.4 distributed energy storage 3.5 mobile phones 3.6 small turbine manufacture 4 political donations 5 controversy 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit 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 . 5 ecotricity building in rowcroft stroud one of its three bases in the town . from this dale went on to commercially build wind monitoring equipment which the company still does today using the name nexgen 6 ; 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 . 7 in 2007 vince ran an 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 . 8 in january 2012 it was revealed they have invested in the development of searaser pump to shore wave energy machines 9 and in june said they were to deploy in the autumn of that year 10 in october 2014 they broke silence to say that with the help of marine consultants dnv gl they are moving from laboratory trials to sea trials 11 in october 2014 it was announced that they have partnered with skanska to build and finance new turbines to add a further 100mw to their existing 70 mw capacity 12 in november 2014 they announced they would not be attempting new applications in england because of the current political climate at the time and would instead concentrate on scotland . 13 they went on to spin their small turbine manufacturer out into a subsidiary called britwind . 14 britwind in collaboration with a local company then offer free electricity to crofters in return for installing a small turbine and keeping any excess power generated . 15 in march 2015 they announced they had refinanced their existing wind farms with the aim of using the extra capital to expand their production to 100 megawatts by november 2016 16 tariffs edit before august 2013 ecotricity ran a mix of fuels . 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 17 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 . 17 ecotricity also provided a 100 % renewable energy tariff new energy plus in which renewable energy was bought in from other suppliers to top up renewable energy produced by ecotricity . 18 wind edit in conisholme in lincolnshire on 8 january 2009 two of the blades of one of the company s turbines were damaged . 19 in february 2013 the go ahead was given for them to build their largest windfarm a 66 mw 22 turbine farm at heckington fen in lincolnshire 20 in february 2013 they revealed they have installed a prototype 6 kw vertical axis windturbine they are call the urbine 21 solar edit ecotricity also produces solar energy with its first sun park coming onstream in 2011 . 22 in april 2016 they bought sunedisons uk business supplying domestic solar panels 23 gas edit 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 1 24 by 2017 they plan to have their own digesters fed by locally sourced grass from marginal land of grade 3 or poorer . the first will produce 78.84 gwh a year from 75 000t of grass and forage rye silage 25 26 in august 2015 it was announced they will be building an anaerobic digester at with sparsholt college that will take specially grown grass cuttings from local farms local to college and supply the resulting six megawatts 27 of gas to the grid 28 with an overall aim of training students in the technology . this joins the first announced in gloucestershire in april 25 and was followed by a third three megawatt 29 plant announced in august in somerset 30 on the 25th april 2016 planning permission for the first site which was to be located at sparsholt college was denied 31 side projects edit greenbird edit ecotricity is the sponsor of the ecotricity greenbird a land yacht that set a new world land speed record for wind powered vehicles on 26 march 2009 on the dry lake ivanpah . an ecotricity wind turbine at green park business park reading england generating electricity for 1000 homes . nemesis edit ecotricity has built an electric sports 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 recharging only from electricity produced by wind power . 32 in september 2012 the car broke the uk electric land speed record reaching an average speed of 151 mph 33 vehicle recharging edit in july 2011 they announced their vehicle charging network that will be sited at welcome break service stations and their turbine in reading they were initially 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 . 7 in july 2011 it was announced that they will be providing fast and normal electric vehicle charging stations at 14 of the welcome break motorway service areas linking london in the south with exeter in the west and edinburgh in the north . 34 in october 2012 they started to add 50 kw chademo fast charging to their charging stations allowing compatible cars to recharge within 30 minutes . 35 in april 2014 it was announced that they would be adding support for combined charging system connectors from may 36 and the september had over 120 chargers . in may 2014 they brought an interim high court injunction against tesla motors in reference to their vehicle charging network . 37 38 this was resolved by a secret out of court settlement . 39 in 2014 the chargers in their vehicle charging network had sporadic software problems to do with the addition of a new connector which left some chargers not working or not connecting to specific cars 40 as of december 2014 they covered 90 percent of the motorway service stations and including land s end and john o groats . 41 by december 2015 they had 6 500 members using it once a week or more and announced they were to start charging in 2016 and the would be cost lower than petrol or diesel 42 in an interview on march 2016 vince announced that requiring payment would start in a couple of months and the money from it would be used to improve and extend the network . 43 starting from the 11th july 2016 they started charging 5 generally for a 20 minute fast charge later changed to 6 for 30 minutes . 44 but kept it free for customers of ecotricity . 45 distributed energy storage edit they have looking to trial a 100 homes with an 46 internet connected grid energy storage system that will take the homes off the grid at peak times . 47 48 49 mobile phones edit in september 2013 it was mentioned they were planning a mobile phone network called ecotalk 49 in march 2016 vince announced in an interview 43 more details such as that electricity costs will all be covered by green electricity and some of the profts would go toward returning land to the wild . small turbine manufacture edit in may 2014 ecotricity rescued evance a manufacturer of small 5 kw wind turbines from administration 50 saving the company s 29 jobs . 51 political donations edit the company has donated to several political parties that support subsidies for renewable energy . in november 2013 they donated 20 000 to the green party . 52 on 10 february 2015 ecotricity announced that they would be donating 250 000 to the electoral fighting fund of the uk labour party . 53 this decision alienated some of their customers in particular supporters of the green party as they feel some labour policies are at odds with ecotricity s avowed green ethical stance . 54 in fact ecotricity had already donated 120 000 52 to labour in november 2014 including 20 000 to the local group in stroud 52 which was trying unsuccessfully to unseat neil carmichael an opponent of wind farms in gloucestershire . in the six months before the 2015 general election ecotricity donated a total of 380 000 to labour . 52 the day after the election of 7 may 2015 the company donated 50 000 52 to the liberal democrats including 20 000 52 to the group in the kingston upon thames constituency which had been lost by ed davey the pro renewables secretary of state for energy and climate change . controversy edit in july 2009 ecotricity started legal proceedings 55 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 . see also edit energy portal 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 references edit this article relies too much on references to primary sources . please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources . march 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message a b ecotricity customers cooking on uk s first green gas http renews.biz 75334 ecotricity eyes finish line in devon https www.ecotricity.co.uk our green energy our green electricity from the wind how windmills work video interview of dale vince explaining why they invest in wind power pagnamenta robin 15 december 2008 . business big shot dale vince of ecotricity . london times online . retrieved 2009 06 06 . nexgen a b video interview with