Ecotricity's Green Champion gets OBE

5th January 2004


One of the pioneers of renewable energy, Ecotricity managing director Dale Vince, has been awarded an OBE in this year's New Year Honours list.

Dale, a passionate advocate of wind power for over ten years, founded the world's first green electricity company in 1995, and has helped grow political, business and consumer awareness of renewable energy ever since. He was one of only a handful of wind power advocates at the 1997 Kyoto Summit and is regularly consulted by the Government and energy bodies.

A keen environmental campaigner for ten years, Dale chose a low-impact, alternative lifestyle, living without mains electricity or water until the early 1990s.

He used a small wind turbine to power his own dwelling, and after seeing giant wind turbines in operation in Cornwall, decided that we needed to change the way we make electricity in this country. Large wind turbines were the way forward.

It took Dale five years to get permission to build the first giant turbine in Gloucester - it took just two days to build, and continues to power 400 homes. In 1995 Dale applied for a licence to trade as an electricity company, and set up Ecotricity, selling the energy made by the wind turbines directly to businesses and homes.

Ecotricity now supplies companies like The Body Shop and Co-operative Bank with renewable energy. It has recently started work on London's first wind park - two turbines which will power Ford's Dagenham car plant. The company also supplies a growing consumer market, with homes nationwide using clean, wind-generated electricity.

"Changing the way electricity is made has been our single focus for the last ten years from a time when it was quite a fringe activity, to say the least", said Dale. "To me, this award is a powerful endorsement of green electricity, our work and of everybody at Ecotricity, both past and present."

Ends.