Dale Vince

Early life

Vince was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, the second of three children to parents who ran a Fenland haulage firm. Leaving school at 15, he spent time as a New Age traveller.

In 1980, Vince participated in the occupation of RAF Molesworth after it was chosen as a base for the US Air Force's mobile nuclear armed Ground Launched Cruise Missile. He was also one of the new age travellers present at the Battle of the Beanfield at Stonehenge in 1985.

Career

In 1991, Vince saw his first wind farm ("I thought, either I can carry on by myself with the windmill on my van, or I can get into the big stuff") and, in 1995, he founded the Renewable Energy Company, which eventually changed its name to Ecotricity. In 1996, he launched his first wind turbine supplying "green electricity". The following year, he attended the conference in Kyoto, Japan, that produced the Kyoto Protocol.

In November 2010, Vince debuted Nemesis, which has been described by The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph as "Britain's first green supercar". Nemesis is a modified Lotus Exige owned and developed by Vince.

In 2012, Vince founded the Green Britain Foundation, a charitable organisation dedicated to the protection of the natural environment and the promotion of physical recreation. The same year, Vince helped establish the Electric Superhighway, a network of electric vehicle charging stations positioned along Britain's motorways. He sold the network to Gridserve in 2021.

In 2019, Vince founded Devil's Kitchen, a company that provides vegan meals to schools and colleges. As of 2024, the company was serving approximately one in four British primary schools. He published his first book, Manifesto, in 2020. Manifesto went on to become a Sunday Times bestseller in April 2023.

In October 2020, The Guardian reported that Vince had plans to create artificial diamonds by chemical vapor deposition using "carbon dioxide captured directly from the atmosphere to form the diamonds – which are chemically identical to diamonds mined from the earth – using wind and solar electricity, with water collected from rainfall." This plan was realised as a company called SkyDiamond, which produced its first 15 diamonds in December 2021 and released a full jewelry line in October 2022.{{cite news |last=Liu |first=Ming |date=January 22, 2023|title=Diamonds Are in the Air

In April 2022, Vince announced he planned to sell Ecotricity and go into politics. He said part of the reason was that a new owner "can achieve even more, faster. We've got a massive pipeline of projects that need to be built requiring £2 billion of investment." As well as developing his interest in politics, he would focus on renewable projects such as tidal lagoons and geothermal energy. In November of the same year, he said that he had halted plans to sell the company.

In June 2023, Vince announced plans to implement an "eco-curriculum" across 12,000 UK schools by 2025 through his Ministry of Eco Education. The curriculum, which seeks to teach pupils about the natural world and the climate crisis, had previously been tested in a pilot scheme featuring 25 schools in 2022.

In July 2023, Vince announced the founding of Ecojet, an airline which intended to operate planes powered by hydrogen-derived electricity. Ecojet's first flights were originally scheduled to take place in 2024, before being delayed to summer 2025.{{cite news |last=Perry |first=Dominic |date= |title= Ecojet delays launch until 2025 but insists it is building for the long term |url=https://www.flightglobal.com/air-transport/ecojet-delays-launch-until-2025-but-insists-it-is-building-for-the-long-term/159913.article |work=Flight Global |access-date=February 3, 2025}} On 20th January 2026, liquidators were appointed following a winding-up order against the company, which had never operated commercial flights.

Football

In 2010, Vince became a major shareholder of Forest Green Rovers FC, and three months later was appointed club chairman. In February 2011, Rovers players were banned from eating red meat for health reasons, and a few weeks later the sale of all red meat products was banned at the club's ground, leaving only vegetarian options and free-range poultry and fish from sustainable stocks.

Vince introduced a number of different eco-friendly developments at the club including the installation of solar panels on its New Lawn home ground, the use of a solar-powered robot grass mower, and the creation of the world's first organic football pitch.

In September 2015, Vince revealed Forest Green were using a player recruitment method similar to the 'Moneyball' model that had been initially used in baseball to sign players by using computer-generated analysis. In October 2015, Forest Green became the world's first all vegan football club.

In 2021, the team became the first in the world to play in a football kit made from a composite material consisting of recycled plastic and coffee grounds.

The United Nations has recognised Forest Green Rovers as the world's first carbon-neutral football club and it was described by FIFA as the "greenest team in the world". In 2024, Forest Green lost their English Football League status after suffering two successive relegations.

Honours

Vince was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2004 New Year Honours for "services to the Environment and to the Electricity Industry".

In 2013, he was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy by the University of Gloucestershire.

Personal life

While studying, Vince met and married Kathleen Wyatt, two years his senior and with a child of her own, in 1981. The couple subsequently became New Age travellers together, living off state benefits. They had a son together, Dane, in 1983. They separated some years later, and Wyatt reportedly raised the couple's son largely alone thereafter. They divorced in 1992.

Speaking on BBC Points West on 2 June 2025, Vince recalled being present at the Battle of the Beanfield in 1985.

Vince is vegan. He has campaigned to end animal farming and in 2024 urged Labour to do away with a law that compels English schools to serve meat and dairy. In January 2025, Vince announced that Ecotricity had opened a fully plant-based workplace canteen at its facility in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

First divorce and financial claim court case

After Vince had made his fortune, Wyatt, who had lived what was later described in court as "16 years of real hardship", lodged a financial claim of £1.9 million against Vince in 2011, nearly 20 years after their divorce.

The Court of Appeal rejected the claim, stating it had "no real prospect of success" and was an "abuse of process". However, in March 2015 the Supreme Court set aside this decision, ruling that there was no time limit in law for claims for financial provision, and the claim could progress in the High Court. Lord Wilson said the court must have regard "to the contribution of each party to the welfare of the family, including by looking after the home or caring for the family", but the claim only had a prospect of "comparatively modest success" with a £1.9 million payout "out of the question".

In a statement, Vince branded the court's decision as "mad". "I feel that we all have a right to move on, and not be looking over our shoulders. This could signal open season for people who had brief relationships a quarter of a century ago". Prior to the case settlement, Vince paid the legal costs for both parties, of over £500,000, as divorce law permits costs to be charged to the combined resources of both parties.

In 2016, the case was settled when Vince agreed to pay £300,000 to Wyatt. He commented that the case had been "a terrible waste of time and money". He stated the settlement barely covered Wyatt's legal fees which he had already paid prior to the settlement. He then repeated his opinion that he was "disappointed that the supreme court decided not to throw out the case, given it was brought over 30 years since the relationship ended" before adding, "There clearly needs to be a statute of limitations for divorce cases – a time limit beyond which a claim cannot be made. Such a thing exists in commercial law for good practical reasons."

Second marriage and divorce

Vince married Kate Lane, who worked at Ecotricity, in 2006; they have a son.

They divorced in 2024, and on 20 December 2024, the High Court ordered Dale Vince to pay Kate Vince £43.51 million over three annual instalments in a financial settlement related to his businesses, of which he retained ownership. The combined legal bill was about £6 million. Vince claimed in January 2026 that he offered Lane a settlement of £68 million before the court case, and the rejection of that had resulted in numerous court hearings and acrimony with a smaller settlement. They had separated in 2022, and had previously divided their non-business assets, on a broadly equal basis of about £5 million each.

Politics

Vince has made donations to both the Labour Party and the Green Party. Prior to the 2015 UK general election, he was one of several 'celebrities' who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of the Green Party's Caroline Lucas. He endorsed the Labour Party in the 2019 general election.

He has made donations to various Labour Party MPs, as well as environmental protest groups, such as Just Stop Oil, Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Forest Green raised the Palestinian flag during a match in April 2022 "in solidarity with the Palestinian people". Vince said "Palestine has been under siege by Israel – by air, land and sea, for decades. The US allows this, pumps billions into Israel to support its economy and military and uses its veto to block any meaningful action by the UN". He said the West's position in relation to Palestine "stands in stark contradiction to 'our' claims to moral superiority, civilisation and democratic values". Vince has been described as "anti-Israel" and "anti-Zionist" by The Jerusalem Post, which wrote that he was using the club "as a means to promote his anti-Israel agenda".

On Times Radio, in the immediate aftermath of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Vince stated that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" when asked about Hamas. Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said Vince's remark was "appalling". Vince said his remark was taken from a doctored video clip and that, in the same interview, he had agreed that Hamas were terrorists and Israel had a right to defend itself.

In July 2024, Vince sued the owners of the political blog Guido Fawkes for libel, claiming that the site implied he supported Hamas by circulating a clip of the Times Radio interview that featured only the "freedom fighter" remark with no additional context. The Daily Mail, GB News, apologised to Vince for advancing similar mischaracterisations of his views. The Daily Mail and GB News also paid Vince legal damages. Vince has expressed his intention to donate the damages awarded in these suits to Palestinian charities.

After the anti-Semitic massacre at Bondi Beach, in which Islamist gunmen targeted a Jewish event in a terrorist attack, Vince released a statement seeming to blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu, at least in part, for the attack, for which Vince was sharply criticized in response, by Kemi Badenoch and others.

References

References

1. Flintoff, John-Paul. (27 May 2011). "Power to the people: Dale Vince, green energy pioneer". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
2. Blackhurst, Chris. (21 January 2025). "The real-life 'Split': Inside Dale Vince's messy 'super-rich' divorce battle".
3. Carter, Claire. (22 April 2013). "Eco millionaire fights ex-wife's claim for maintenance 20 years after divorce". The Daily Telegraph.
4. Butter, Susannah. (17 April 2015). "Dale Vince: 'I don't consider I was married other than I signed a piece of paper'". [[Evening Standard]].
5. "The TH Interview: Dale Vince of Ecotricity". TreeHugger.
6. Bassett, Kate. (18 June 2009). "Dale Vince: 'The police should be better than us{{'-}}". Real Business.
7. "About this blog". Zerocarbonista.
8. Gadd, Helen. (1 April 2022). "What is Dale Vince's net worth and which companies does he own?".
9. Andrew Davidson. (3 August 2009). "1000 CEOs". Dorling Kindersley Limited.
10. Grover, Sami. (5 September 2013). "How an 'Off-Grid' Hippie Built a Wind Energy Empire". [[TreeHugger.
11. Arnott, Sarah. (31 March 2011). "Dale Vince: Tilting at windmills: how to turn the UK green". [[The Independent]].
12. D'Urso, Joey. (July 21, 2023). "How League Two owners made their money: Hollywood, cryptocurrency and the Class of ’92". The Athletic.
13. Rankin, Jennifer. (10 February 2015). "Ecotricity gives £250,000 to Labour amid 'existential threat' from Tories". The Guardian.
14. Butcher, Mike. (September 14, 2013). "He's Electric — Will A Revolutionary Black Box Turn Dale Vince Into Europe's Elon Musk?". TechCrunch.
15. Vidal, John. (November 5, 2010). "'Smashing the Noddy stereotype' – UK's first green supercar takes to the roads". The Guardian.
16. Norton, Jim. (December 18, 2024). "The vegan wind-farm owner who wants to shape Starmer’s politics". The Daily Telegraph.
17. . (September 27, 2012). ["'Nemesis' electric car breaks UK land-speed record"](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-19733430). *BBC*.
18. (January 31, 2025). "Green Britain Foundation".
19. (April 30, 2022). "Green Britain Foundation Financial Statements".
20. Loveridge, Ashley. (June 9, 2021). "Ecotricity chief Dale Vince sells motorway EV charging network to Gridserve". Stroud Times.
21. Watson, Sarah Phaedre. (March 11, 2019). "Dale Vince on why he's launching vegan food in schools, and what he's up to next". Stroud News & Journal.
22. Wheeler, Brian. (September 23, 2024). "Scrap law making schools serve meat, urges Labour donor". Stroud News & Journal.
23. Aitkenhead, Decca. (March 3, 2024). "Dale Vince: 'Money hasn't changed me. It's changed what I can do'". The Times.
24. . (April 2, 2023). "The Sunday Times Bestsellers, General Paperbacks". *[[The Sunday Times]]*.
25. (30 October 2020). "Ecotricity founder to grow diamonds 'made entirely from the sky'". [[The Guardian]].
26. (1 April 2022). "Ecotricity founder Dale Vince to sell company and go into politics". The Times.
27. Hughes, Janet. (1 April 2022). "Dale Vince and that Ecotricity shock that wasn't an April Fool". Reach.
28. Wood, David. (November 1, 2022). "Dale Vince halts Ecotricity sale". Gloucester Punchline.
29. (June 3, 2023). "Labour donor and Just Stop Oil backer plots ‘eco-curriculum’ across 12,000 schools". The Telegraph.
30. Lawson, Alex. (July 16, 2023). "Green energy tycoon to launch UK’s first electric airline". The Guardian.
31. "ECOJET AIRLINES LIMITED {{!}} Petitions to Wind Up (Companies) {{!}} The Gazette".
32. "ENERGY firm Ecotricity will today confirm they are joining forces with Forest Green Rovers". This is Gloucestershire.
33. (9 October 2010). "Dale Vince becomes Forest Green chairman". BBC Sport.
34. (10 February 2011). "Burger ban begins at Forest Green Rovers football club". BBC News.
35. (4 December 2011). "Forest Green Rovers football club installs solar panels". BBC News.
36. (21 April 2012). "Robot lawn mower used by Forest Green Rovers football club". BBC News.
37. (15 June 2011). "Forest Green Rovers spread manure on football pitch". BBC News.
38. (8 September 2015). "Dale Vince: Forest Green Rovers using 'Moneyball' model". BBC Sport.
39. (31 October 2015). "Football club goes vegan in world first". BBC News.
40. Corless, Liam. (7 November 2015). "Forest Green top of the league after becoming 'world's first' football club to go entirely vegan".
41. Moore, Rowan. (28 March 2021). "Soy of the Rovers: the vegan football club kickstarting a green revolution". [[The Observer]].
42. (28 September 2018). "Forest Green Rovers named 'greenest football club in world'". [[BBC News]].
43. {{London Gazette. (31 December 2003)
44. (9 August 2013). "University Announces Honorary Doctorates and Fellowships". University of Gloucestershire.
45. Orr, Deborah. (13 March 2015). "Dale Vince 'moved on' from caring for his child – that's not what divorce is for". The Guardian.
46. Bingham, John. (11 March 2015). "Delayed divorce battle: Ecotricity founder Dale Vince's New Age traveller ex-wife wins cash fight". The Daily Telegraph.
47. Flintoff, John-Paul. (27 May 2011). "Power to the people: Dale Vince, green energy pioneer". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
48. Wheeler, Brian. (September 23, 2024). "Scrap law making schools serve meat, urges Labour donor". BBC.
49. . (January 20, 2025). ["'UK's first' fully plant-based workplace canteen opens"](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8qvlle8e3o.amp). *BBC*.
50. (11 March 2015). "Woman could win cash payout 20 years after divorce". BBC News.
51. Bowcott, Owen. (12 March 2015). "Woman wins right to seek money from ex-husband 30 years after breakup". The Guardian.
52. (12 March 2015). "Dale Vince divorce ruling 'like cashing in old lottery ticket'". BBC.
53. Press Association. (10 June 2016). "Ecotricity founder calls for time limit on divorce payout claims". The Guardian.
54. (2026-01-24). "Dale Vince, the eco-millionaire who now hates heat pumps".
55. (20 December 2024). "Dale Andrew Vince v Kate Vince".
56. Elgot, Jessica. (24 April 2015). "Celebrities sign statement of support for Caroline Lucas – but not the Greens". The Guardian.
57. Labour: By The Many. (6 December 2019). "The South West is rich in solar, wind, marine & geothermal energy. It also has the poorest regions in the UK! Here's @DaleVince owner of @ecotricity on why @UKLabour has his vote to tackle the climate crisis #GreenIndustrialRevolution #ByTheMany".
58. Coates, Sam. "Westminster Accounts: Labour and Starmer have accepted thousands from major Just Stop Oil donor".
59. Spungin, Tal. (26 April 2022). "Who is Dale Vince, the anti-Zionist owner of the 'world's greenest football club'?".
60. Daly, Patrick. (2024-03-14). "Labour donor Dale Vince's comments about Hamas were appalling, says Rayner". [[The Independent]].
61. Waterson, Jim. (July 2, 2024). "Dale Vince sues Guido Fawkes owner for libel over Hamas claims". The Guardian.
62. Parke, Callum. (February 24, 2025). "Daily Mail publisher to pay £40k to Dale Vince over false claim he supports Hamas". The Independent.
63. . (April 5, 2024). ["Lichfield MP apologises to businessman after social media post"](https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/2024/04/05/lichfield-mp-apologises-to-businessman-after-social-media-post//). *LichfieldLive*.
64. Ponsford, Dominic. (March 31, 2025). "Guido Fawkes owner Paul Staines pays £75,000 libel case costs to Dale Vince". PressGazette.
65. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/15/labour-donor-dale-vince-criticised-for-post-following-bondi-beach-attack