25 Facts About Ecotricity

Ecotricity is a British energy company based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England, specialising in selling green energy to consumers that it primarily generates from its 87.

Besides the supply of gas and electricity, Ecotricity's initiatives include the creation of one of Britain's first electric vehicle charging networks, which was sold to Gridserve in 2021.

Ecotricity was started by Dale Vince in 1995 as Renewable Energy Company Limited, with a single wind turbine he had used to power an old army truck in which he lived on a hill near Stroud.

Ecotricity started generation with a 40-metre turbine in 1996, which at the time was the largest in the country.

Ecotricity was a winner in the 2007 Ashden Awards for sustainable energy.

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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 EDF's Team Green Britain campaign.

Ecotricity had previously used a green Union flag in its own advertising and claimed confused customers had contacted it to ask why Ecotricity was co-operating with EDF.

In January 2012, it was announced that Ecotricity has invested in the development of Searaser pump-to-shore wave energy machines, and in June said they were to be deployed in the autumn of that year.

In October 2014, it was announced that Ecotricity had partnered with Skanska to build and finance new turbines, which added a further 100MW to its existing 70 MW capacity, The following month, the company decided not to attempt new planning applications in England because of the political climate, instead concentrating on Scotland.

In March 2015, Ecotricity announced it had refinanced its existing wind farms with the aim of using the extra capital to expand production to 100 megawatts by November 2016.

In February 2013 the go-ahead was given for Ecotricity to build its largest windfarm, a 66 megawatt, 22 turbine farm at Heckington Fen in Lincolnshire.

Ecotricity produces solar energy, with its first "sun park" opening in 2011.

Ecotricity offers the Feed-in Tariff as a voluntary licensee under the name "Microtricity", offering payments to people who generate and export electricity from low-carbon sources such as solar panels.

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.

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.

In July 2011 Ecotricity launched a free vehicle charging network sited around the country at 14 of the Welcome Break Motorway service areas, linking London in the south with Exeter in the west and Edinburgh in the north.

In 2014 the Ecotricity 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.

From 11 July 2016 Ecotricity started charging £5 for a 20-minute fast-charge, later changed to £6 for 30 minutes but kept it free for customers of Ecotricity.

Ecotricity has investigated supplying 100 houses with an internet-connected grid energy storage system that will take the homes off the grid at peak times.

Ecotricity launched a mobile virtual network called Ecotalk in 2018; plans had been discussed by Vince in 2013.

In May 2014, Ecotricity rescued Evance, a manufacturer of small wind turbines, from administration, saving the company's 29 jobs.

On 10 February 2015 Ecotricity announced that it would be donating £250,000 to the electoral fighting fund of the UK Labour Party.

Ecotricity had already donated £120,000 to Labour in November 2014, including £20,000 to the local group in Stroud which was trying to unseat Neil Carmichael, an opponent of wind farms in Gloucestershire.

Ecotricity donated £20,000 to Keir Starmer's 2020 Labour Party leadership election campaign.

In May 2018 it was announced that Ecotricity would start building a Virtual power plant to more efficiently use and manage the electricity usage.

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