New Times,
New Thinking.

Dale Vince: shifting to renewables “needs no public money”

The eco-entrepreneur and Labour donor on the future of the green transition.

By Megan Kenyon

When the general election campaign began, Dale Vince got busy. The day after the 4 July date was set, Vince, the 62-year-old eco-entrepreneur and founder of the green electricity company Ecotricity, donated £1m to the Labour campaign. His lifetime contributions to the party have now surpassed £5m. (Vince also backed Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in 2019.)

When we met online, two days after Rishi Sunak’s soaked-through election announcement speech, Vince was buoyant about Labour’s prospects (he proved correct) and spoke highly of the party’s plans to deliver clean power by 2030. Now, Keir Starmer finds himself in the seat of power and ready to enact his green energy mission, with Labour winning the general election with a landslide majority of 174 seats.

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