Ecotricity

Ecotricity

File:Ecotricity.png
Type	Limited company
Industry	Energy
Founded	1 April 1996
Headquarters	Stroud, England
Key people	Dale Vince, founder
Products	Wind energy projects Solar energy projects Biogas
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 wind power portfolio (they prefer the term Windmill rather than Wind-Turbine). It is built on the principle of heavily reinvesting its profit in building more of its own green energy generation.

History

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.

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); 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 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.'

In January 2012 it was revealed they have invested in the development of SEARASER pump-to-shore wave energy machines and in June said they were to deploy in the Autumn of that year 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

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

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. They went on to spin their small turbine manufacturer out into a subsidiary called Britwind. 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.

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

Tariffs

Since August 2013 have offered just one tariff, 100% Green Energy, which is 100% renewable energy.

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

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 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.

Wind

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

In February 2013 they revealed they have installed a prototype 6 kW vertical axis windturbine they are call the urbine

Solar

Ecotricity also produces solar energy, with its first 'sun park' coming onstream in 2011. In April 2016, they bought SunEdisons UK business supplying domestic solar panels

Gas

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) 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 78.84GWh a year from 75,000t of grass and forage rye silage

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 of gas to the grid with an overall aim of training students in the technology. This joins the first announced in Gloucestershire in April and was followed by a third three megawatt plant announced in August in Somerset

On the 25th April 2016 planning permission for the first site (which was to be located at Sparsholt College) was denied

Side projects

Greenbird

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

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 September 2012 the car broke the UK electric Land speed record reaching an average speed of 151 mph

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 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.

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.

In October 2012 they started to add 50 kW CHAdeMO fast charging to their charging stations allowing compatible cars to recharge within 30 minutes. In April 2014 it was announced that they would be adding support for Combined Charging System connectors from May and the September had over 120 chargers. They currently do not charge for its use but plan to at some point in the future. In May 2014 they brought an interim high-court injunction against Tesla Motors in reference to their vehicle charging network., this was resolved by a secret out of court settlement.

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

As of December 2014 they covered 90 percent of the motorway service stations and including Land's End and John o' Groats. 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 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.

Distributed energy storage

They have looking to trial a 100 homes with an internet connected Grid energy storage system that will take the homes off the grid at peak times.

Mobile Phones

In September 2013 it was mentioned they were planning a mobile phone network called ecotalk, in March 2016 Vince announced in an interview more details such as the 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

In May 2014 Ecotricity rescued Evance, a manufacturer of small (5 kW) wind turbines, from administration, saving the company's 29 jobs.

Political donations

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

In fact Ecotricity had already donated £120,000 to Labour in November 2014, including £20,000 to the local group in Stroud 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. The day after the election of 7 May 2015 the company donated £50,000 to the Liberal Democrats, including £20,000 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

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.

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

• Company website
• UK Grid Live Carbon Intensity
• 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