Dale Vince’s energy empire slumps to loss after £12m writedown on ‘vegan gas’ project

Labour donor Dale Vince’s business empire swung to a loss after it suffered a £12m writedown on a “vegan gas” project and global energy prices plunged.

Accounts for the energy tycoon’s holding company, Green Britain Group, showed it fell to a £7m loss in the year to April compared with a profit before tax of almost £50m a year earlier.

Green Britain Group is solely owned by Mr Vince and contains his business interests including Ecotricity, the energy supplier he founded in 1995, the lab-grown diamond company Skydiamond and Forest Green Rovers, a vegan football club.

The group’s slump into the red was partially triggered by a £12m writedown on Ecotricity’s green gas mill in Reading, which was opened in 2023, after it suffered engineering and design failures.

So-called vegan gas is made using grass cuttings, rather than animal waste, which is broken down by anaerobic digestion to create methane.

Mr Vince has championed the scheme, saying two years ago: “We estimate that if we grow grass on all the marginal land in Britain, we’ll be able to make enough green gas to supply the entire country.”

Ecotricity has since had to completely scrap its first biogas plant but is planning a new facility which it said could provide gas to several thousand homes.

“A [new] facility is under development and … will produce biomethane via anaerobic digestion, using grass from the local area as the primary feedstock,” said the report.

The project is currently in a pre-construction phase, and is due for completion in 2026.”

Revenues from selling electricity and gas came to £467m during the year, a sharp drop from £551m a year earlier when revenues included £123m of government subsidies to support customers through the energy crisis.

The report said: “The Government previously stepped in to mitigate the impact of higher wholesale prices on consumers. This support has wound down during financial year 2024 as prices stabilised, albeit to higher than historical average prices.”

The decline in energy prices saw the company’s income from government energy bill subsidies plummet to £8m, down from £123m during the prior year.

The accounts come after a High Court decision earlier this month that ruled Mr Vince’s ex-wife Kate be awarded more than £40m in a divorce settlement.

Lawyers for Mr Vince’s ex-wife told the court he was giving away matrimonial assets, of which she should be entitled to half, including £5.4m in donations to the Labour Party.

Mr Vince founded the energy firm Ecotricity in 1995 after rigging up an old pylon to a wind-powered telephone at Glastonbury.

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