Watt an honour! (From Gazette Series)

Watt an honour!

AN ENVIRONMENTALIST who built the first giant wind turbine in Gloucestershire is among those to be recognised in this year's New Year Honours list.

Dale Vince, who has pioneered renewable energy across the country, has been awarded an OBE for his work to raise awareness of renewable energy.

Mr Vince, who spent five years obtaining permission for Nympsfield's giant wind turbine, has been a passionate advocate of wind power for over ten years.

Mr Vince founded the world's first green electricity company, Ecotricity in Stroud in 1995.

In 1995 Mr Vince applied for a licence to trade as an electricity company and set up Ecotricity to sell the energy made by the wind turbines directly to businesses and homes.

Since then he has helped grow political, business and consumer awareness of renewable energy.

"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 Mr Vince. "To me, this award is a powerful endorsement of green electricity, our work and of everybody at Ecotricity, both past and present."

He was one of only a handful of wind power advocates at the 1997 Kyoto Summit, and is regularly consulted by government and energy bodies.

A keen environmental campaigner for ten years, Mr Vince's ecofriendly outlook is reflected in his lifestyle. He 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 his first giant turbine in operation in Cornwall, decided the way electricity in this country is made needed to change.

He believed large wind turbines were the way forward.

The Nympsfield turbine - the first giant turbine in Gloucestershire - took just two days to build and continues to power 500 homes.

Ecotricity now supplies companies including The Body Shop and Co-operative Bank with renewable energy, and is one of Stroud's key employers.

The company has recently started work on London's first wind park - two turbines which will power Ford's Dagenham car plant, and also supplies a growing consumer market, with homes nation-wide using clean, wind-generated electricity.