This blog is about answers to the big questions – how will we keep the lights on, what kind of cars will we drive (will we drive?) and how will we feed ourselves – in a post oil world, and a world where we can’t afford to keep burning things and throwing things away. Energy, Transport and Food are the three big issues.
It’s about ideas and policies, innovation and change, engineering our way out of this mess we’re in – it’s about the next Industrial Revolution and the journey to a low impact lifestyle, Zero carbon living if you like.
It’s a place to comment on the news, to share ideas, get feedback – all that kind of stuff. I hope it will become a forum where these things that need to be talked about, get talked about and through that get acted on.
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After one visit to the Ecotricity website I decided to become a customer. I feel empowered that I can choose a company that is green at heart. It is direct action. In this vein, I have an idea for your ideas box: How about making it possible for people to invest in a share of a wind turbine? What better way of giving something back to the planet than leaving a share of a turbine in your will?
Is there any hydrogen manufactured on a UK Ecotricity wind power site..or any plans to do this…
@Roger Sheldon – Glad to have you with us Roger, appreciate your support. Giving people the chance to own a piece of a windmill is a good idea. Not as easy as it sounds, but far from impossible. Something we hope to get to before long – it’s on our list. Cheers.
@Gerry 321 – No Hydrogen projects yet but we’re in discussion with a couple of pilot schemes to see if we can help them with their wind energy. Personally I’m not sure that Hydrogen should have a big role to play as an energy source, but I’m for exploring all avenues – the solution we’re ultimately looking for will be like a jigsaw puzzle, where even small parts are important.
Dale - why do Ecotricity NOT make more of an effort to engage in education at your turbine sites ? One of the things that always amazes me is what little people actually know about turbines and how many myths there are out there, myths that are often ‘picked - up’ on because there is nobody dispelling them !! They see turbines as something in the distance and very rarely get ‘up close and personal’ with the turbines. When they do get close enough and are provided with a little more info (just a few key stats) they often change their minds about turbines completely and turn from potentially ‘anti’ to ‘pro’. I work at the GreenPark turbine and facilitate educational visits to the visitors centre and i feel that given just an average hours worth of education most people are happy to (using a BWEA phrase) ‘embrace wind’. Do Ecotricity have any plans to help facilitate such education in future ? CHEERS - Ian Gough
@ Ian
Hi Ian, I think we probably do make rather more of an effort than you know. For example we’ve been running the Ecotech Centre in Norfolk for the last year, having saved it from bankruptcy and a large part of the work being done there is the hosting of school visits. We built a turbine in the backyard there and added to it a viewing platform so that people can climb the turbine and see things from the very top. It’s a massive enhancement to the visit to be able to get this close. That people like turbines better once they’ve seen one is a truth we’re more than familiar with – it’s why we build turbines where people live and where they can see them, and it’s why we built the turbine at Green Park – enabling the school visits that you do. We’re currently working on some key stage information packs and trialling other works through the Ecotech centre before we roll out nationally. Hope that helps.
I like what you and your company is doing. I like the ideas behind it, and the drive is not for profits. Take care of your country first. Then please, please, please come over to the U.S., set up shop in the Midwest, (Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, preferably Nebraska though.) where there is basically a constant wind tunnel, and get us off the expensive grids powered by gas and coal, hundreds of miles away.
There is plenty of farmland around where I am, and since the farmers and the rest of Nebraska got screwed over in the corn/ethanol plant and fuel deal, I am sure the kickbacks you and your company offer would be welcome with open arms after some education about wind.
Sorry, I don’t mean to sound like a desperate nut job, but I am sick of paying high prices for things that I shouldn’t have to, because that is the way it has been for the last 100 years or more, and I don’t have the resources to do but small green innovations very locally.
Thanks, and I have your blog bookmarked.
@ Darkshine – Hi Darkshine, thanks for your post and support. We’d like to set up in the US someday not too far away, there’s much that could be done there and we think there’s something we could bring to the party. So maybe coming to a state near you one day soon. Cheers.
Well - that was interesting…
I hope the blog is now working again for you all (and that it stays that way!).
There may be teething problems - do let me know if you spot anything and I will do my best to put it right.
Please carry on as normal… apart from the hacker
Hi, great website, blog and all praise to what Ecotricity is doing to get us off the Oil Addiction.
In my locality there is a company which is trailing tidal wave electricity generation. I didn’t approach them yet but our group- Transition Town Westcliff - would like to work with them closer in the future.
http://www.tridentenergy.co.uk/sea_trials/
What I wanted to know is Ecotricity going to invest in this kind of ventures if the cost of generating electricity from tidal wave matches the one from wind farms?
And asking you as the expert on renewables does tidal wave have future?
Hi Kamil, yes definitely we’ll be looking to get involved in tide and wave power as it approaches a commercial state - it’s early R&D right now. In our opinion Wave and Tidal power have a lot of potential, certainly the UK has plenty of both - the key though will be achieving a competitive cost per unit, and this requires efficient reliable machines. This will take time. Cheers.
I have today emailed everyone in my address book with the link to your webpage. If all your users could be asked to do the same it will help to spreead the word about - wind.
Keep up the good work!
@ Pat - Thanks very much for your support Pat.
I just like wind:) and I love kites
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2016
Like some of your other commentators, I’d be very interested in investing in an ecotricity wind turbine, as I live in central London, with neither the wind speed available in my area nor option to capture solar energy. Is ecotricity up for this kind of project?
Hi Dale,
Just watched a clip of your car build on treehugger. I wish you the very best of luck and I am excited to see the continuation of the project.
this blog is already put in to my reader and I will follow it from today :).
Me myself is trying something similar but on a very different scale and with a lot less means (so far 0). Please check it out if you have the time, http://www.tellgren.com. Currently trying to set up collaboration with some guys in the USA who have gotten farther than me. I just love the internet
Cheers!
Hi Peter, Looks cool, I wish you good luck with it too. Always wanted to build a go kart when I was a kid.
Cheers.
Hi I was wondering if the “Recent Comments” list on the RHS could be a bit longer, or that there is a separate page with a longer list. The recent posts get scrolled off the end really quickly (less than 24 hours) now.
Hi Jeffrey
I have just doubled the number of recent comments - I hope that helps…
Also - an FYI - we are working on a new theme design which will hopefully make the blog more user friendly, and look prettier too.
Thanks for the heads-up
Paul
Paul,
brilliant! Thanks very much! Now I feel less guilty about posting this comment and scrolling the list on again!
Jeff
Hello Dale,
Do you remember me? I lived on sites with you years ago. I have been reading your severn barrage proposals, and it sounds great from the energy angle, but you have not addressed any of the other issues involved, particularly important being the huge environmental impact it would certainly have. I think you should present at least some comment or reference to this before asking people to sign.
Other than that I think you’re doing great. I saw a poster of you the other day in Bristol, it was a bit spooky! Keep it up,
Alix
Happy 1st birthday Zerocarbonista blog
Going back to what Roger said, it’s something that has played on my mind also. I realise carbon offset is a controversial subject and it’s vulnerable to all sorts of different greenwash. But surely you could potentially offer some of the best carbon offsetting on planet earth?!
People are going to carry on flying and will buy luxurious electrical items. So why not give them the opportunity to balance some of that with investment in new windmills? Rather than in planting trees that may take too long to absorb the carbon or may never reach maturity. If you’re worried about people using it to increase their carbon output, change the ‘offset’ part of the name and supply it as part of a package - maybe send them an energy saving instruction booklet, a voucher to join ecotricity, some energy saving lightbulbs, a car tyre pressure guage etc.
Hey
I changed to Ecotricity on my first visit to the site. So pleased to be part of the renewable energies revolution.
Cay
I see the league tables you quote are sponsored by Ecotricity, are there any other independent tables you can recommend that compares you to other suppliers?
Hi Paul, we don’t actually sponsor these tables we undertake the research and publish the data. The data itself is all in the public domain, coming from OFGEM and the suppliers themselves, we send our findings to each supplier and give them the chance to make corrections, and then we publish. It couldn’t be more open, fair and accurate really.
Cheers.
Hi Dale, I am just waiting to get the correct bill from EDF and then I am straight over to Ecotricity. This company represents everything that is right with true business and not the market-centric shareholder-run faceless profit machines that have put us in the current mess. Please don’t ever sell out! I am currently working on a helical savonius , a bit what I think your urbine will be like. I will send you a vid if it turns out to make a decent amount of power. The idea of mine is the same as some of the current US versions on the market except I reckon you can manufacture them very cheaply but the US guys are selling theirs for thousands of pounds - not in the spirit of true change!
Keep it up - Cheers.
Sorry for double post, but can I also add, that I like the Ecotricity pricing ethic. So many Green companies (food,clothes,ethical products) sell their products at a premium. So they are basically saying that you can be green and ethical as long you are nice and rich. There is something amazingly wrong with that philosophy but your company says “everyone can change the world at no extra cost” - amazing!
Hi Dan, double posts no trouble. Thanks for the encouragement here and it’s great to hear you’re about to join us. Cheers.
Hello Dale,
I was very disappointed when plans for your Sport City turbine in Manchester fell through - especially as I would have been able to see it from where I work. You’re a little light on turbines in the North West, so have you any more plans around Manchester? Or can I help by suggesting a site?
Hi Tim, I was v disappointed myself when Sport City fell through. I think we may have an outside chance or resurrecting that though. meanwhile yes pls do by all means suggest somewhere in the NW, we def are a bit light as you say. Cheers.
Hi Dale,
I live in East London and would like to develop wind turbines that sit on the roofs of Council flats. I read a not so recent article that they vibrate too much for this to be an option. Do you know if this is still the case?
I think their presence would a) reduce tennants’ bills and b) heighten our awareness of the need and availability of renewable energy. Is this a project ecotricity have looked into?
Great work all round. Thanks for all your efforts
Dave Waldman
Dave Waldman, I suggest you take a look at this report: http://www.warwickwindtrials.org.uk/
..in relation to your east london council flats suggestion.
How about solar hot water instead? http://www.viridiansolar.co.uk/
Dave
Just a suggestion: any chance of a permanent link from the Ecotricity site to this one (somewhere along the top or the bottom perhaps)? There is usually a link, but whichgreen and the progress report are currently occupying the space where it normally goes…
Hi Jeffrey,
The ‘lozenge’ linking to this blog from the homepage will probably be back at some point
We are also working on something on the main site that should help too… more news on that when it happens…
Paul
Hi Paul,
so that’s what it’s called? A “lozenge”?
Good to hear that you’re working on something on the main site… how very exciting!
Jeff
Hi Dale,
I’ve spent hours on the net looking for the best green electricity supplier and Ecotricity looks like a very original and forward thinking company. I’ve read about your achievements and I really applaud your foresight and commitment.
But I read this article (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/fameandfortune/4178447/Dale-Vince-UFOs-alternative-energy-and-money.html) from the Telegraph which reports that you live in a £600,000 home (rented from Ecotricity) and that you own a £200,000 wind powered car.
I’m weighing up the affordability of green energy. I don’t mind paying more to help the environment but this article just didn’t sit right with me… You fully deserve a reward for your achievements in working to turn around the energy industry but can I be sure that the sacrifices I make to pay for green energy will be for the good of the environment?
I look forward to your response in the hope that my fears will be allayed and that I can go ahead with my plan to enjoy receiving power from Ecotricity.
Many thanks in advance.
I have joined Ecotricity recently spurred on by a new film called The Age Of Stupid ( http://www.ageofstupid.net ) which is a lovely film by the director who filmed MacLibel.
I would be interested for comments on Saul’s views on wind power in this interesting video of counting watts:
http://tinyurl.com/saulg
Paul