The Telegraph , 22 October 2006

Eco hero - Dale Vince

When Dale Vince, the founder of green energy company Ecotricity, attended the Kyoto summit on climate change in 1997 he was the possessor of one wind turbine of half amegawatt power. Since then his electricity output has increased 60-fold and he has built another 25 more powerful turbines. Next year he will double his capacity and plans to do the same the following year, erecting what he describes as “the most expensive turbines you can buy-they’re variable speed and direct drive, which means no gearbox, and slience. They’re moving pieces of art rather than industrial machines.”

Vince has also been given the go ahead to erect an 85m-high Norman foster-designed ‘windmill’ at Manchester City’s stadium, making it the first football club to be run largely on green energy.

Vince started Ecotricity in 1995. he had spent the decade before that as a hippie travelling around Britain, learning about low-impact living but without focus.

‘The wind turbines are moving pieces of art rather than industrial machines’

It was only when parked on a hill outside stroud (where Ecotricity is based), charging his trailer’s batteries using a camping turbine, that he became aware of wind-powered energy and dreamt up a scheme to build a full-size turbine with the farmer who owned the land. It took five years, an appeal and a high court challenge from the national trust to get consent. Most turbines are still opposed at local level (‘My view is that local councillors are not capable of making decisions of such complex nature,’ Vince says, ‘and worse still, they fail to represent the majority of local people’), and get permission only after appeal (on a national level), which takes an average of three years.

Vince was ridiculed when he offered to put his power into the national grid, so he set up his own power company. In 2003 ecotricity moved into the domestic market, pledging to match prices of local electricity companies; it now has 22,000 customers, with close to 2,000 sign-ups every month. Companies powered by Ecotricity include Sainsbury’s in Glasgow, the Ford Dagenham, Ben and Jerry’s and the Michelin tyre factory.

Ecotricity is unique among power companies in that it ploughs all profit into building new renewable energy sources. ‘This year alone we’re investing £7million,’ Vince says ‘if you go to whichgreen.com, you can see that half of the big six electricity companies spend about £10 per customer, the other half nothing. We spent more per customer that every other electricity company put together-just over £100 in 2005, about £300 this year.’

Annabel Freyberg

See the Travel section for its ‘Going Green’ guide to plane-free holidays.

Dale Vince recommends…
I’m a big fan of Ecover cleaning products-dishwasher tablets, washing up liquid, that kind of stuff. Also everything organic, especially food-I wont buy non-organic fruit or veg, I would simply rather go without- but non-food items too;if it’s an option, I much prefer to have it. I’m very keen on using my motorbike to get around. It’s easy to get through traffic,a doddle to park and does loads to the gallon, so apart from being fun it is kind of an eco product. And low-energy lightbulbs-just knowing they consume so much less power makes me feel much better seeing lights on (I still turn them off compulsively).