Saturday, October 17, 2009

From living in a truck to $200M how Dale Vince built Ecotricity



In previous coverage of the UK wind power company Ecotricity and their Lotus based EV project I have to admit I had the wrong opinion about Ecotricity CEO Dale Vince. Having just discovered he founded the company while having lived in the back of a truck for 10 years I have a new found respect for the man.

In an interview with Robert Llewellyn (of cult BBC sitcom Red Dwarf fame), Dale busts some myths about wind turbine load factor, the UK's wind generating capacity, and explains how Ecotricity got started from the back of a truck, taking 5 years to get his first wind turbine up, to building a company worth $200 Million. They also take the $350,000 wind powered Lotus EV for a spin.

The interview is part of an Internet TV series called Carpool in which Llewellyn interviews notable business people, celebrities and other interesting characters. Being mostly British based many of the 'Celeb's may be unfamiliar, but the show is mostly about Green topics and they're always in either a hybrid or an electric car. Other notable interviews Chelsea Sexton, proponent of electric vehicles, Diarmuid O'Connell, Vice President of Business Development for Tesla Motors and a test drive of the Mitsubishi MiEV.

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