ECOTRICITY: Planet Before Profit Propels Ecotricity Growth
One of the UK’s oldest and greenest energy companies, Ecotricity, continues to pursue its mission of replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. The company is pushing a B2B strategy while preparing to begin construction of its crown jewel, a 1GW solar and storage site in Lincolnshire. CEO Asif Rehmanwala tells Energy Focus more about ongoing growth in a tough market.
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In the mid-1990s, Dale Vince founded Ecotricity after he built his first windmill in Lynch Knoll, near to the company headquarters in Stroud, Gloucestershire.
Ecotricity is the world’s first green energy company, and one that went on to build Britain’s first megawatt windmill, its first grid-scale sun park and was the first to bring green gas into the UK. Its ‘Bills into Mills’ model directs customer payments into new renewable generation instead of dividends.
“We are an independent UK based vertically integrated energy company. We build renewable energy plant, we generate renewable energy, we trade and sell that energy to customers, and we have 200,000 domestic customers and 60,000 business customers,” says CEO Asif Rehmanwala. “We are deep green and only supply renewable energy. We are one of the UK’s oldest companies in this field, having been established for more than 30 years. Our UK independent status is important – we are not foreign owned, and we reinvest all of our profits back into the business.”
Rehmanwala brings three decades of experience, from the government/regulator through to 10 years with PowerGen and E.ON in the UK and Internationally. “I came to Ecotricity from E.ON, from very large to very small, because Dale Vince offered me a very key part in establishing and growing a business that played a key role while raising the bar in terms of decarbonisation and building pathways to net zero,” he says. “It was a great value proposition and renewables had become my passion so I moved into a position where I could work directly with the owner to make decisions that have an impact on strategy, operations, performance and future direction.”
BIGGEST SUN PARK
Heckington Fen has deep roots in Lincolnshire. The land was approved for renewable energy in 2013, with permission for 22 windmills, but concerns from the Ministry of Defence over radar dragged the process out for years. A switch to solar followed, helped by bifacial panels that generate electricity from light striking both sides, and in February 2025 the scheme received the government’s go-ahead.
“Heckington Fen is one really big project under way that we are particularly excited about. It is a Nationally Significant infrastructure renewable energy generation project of up to 600MW of solar and 400MW of storage on the same site in Lincolnshire. It is one of very few projects in the UK that has consent from the government and has a grid offer to build out in the next three or four years,” says Rehmanwala. “We are looking forward to taking that project forward and it is quite big for us. We have just over 100MW of renewable generation from our existing wind parks and solar parks, and this one site is nearly 10 times bigger than all of the rest put together. Right now, we are in a period where we are eagerly waiting to start construction.”
At nearly 1,000MW of combined solar and storage, the park will be one of the biggest in Britain and could power around 200,000 homes, with batteries allowing the energy to be used around the clock. Building and running it will create hundreds of local jobs and is predicted to save more than 90,000 tonnes of carbon emissions a year. The government’s Solar Roadmap expects UK capacity to rise from around 18GW to between 45GW and 47GW by 2030.
“We have worked with our neighbours around the site,” says Rehmanwala. More than 8km of new hedgerows will screen the fencing, and wildflower margins and habitat corridors are intended to suit skylarks, water voles and pollinators. Consultation produced a community orchard and a 4km walking path linking to existing footpaths, while North Kesteven District Council can expect more than £1 million a year in business rates.
“On the Ecotricity vertically integrated energy front, we operate across the value chain including development, planning and construction. This includes working with national, local and independent grid companies and OEMs.
CUSTOMER FIRST
Building major sites and attracting a continuous flow of new business does not happen without trust that is built through consistent delivery of quality service. In July 2026 Ecotricity won Best Customer Service Small Supplier at the Uswitch Energy Awards, decided by a YouGov poll of 15,019 energy customers, and Citizens Advice placed it top of its non-domestic supplier table for January to March 2026, its fifth consecutive quarter in the top three. “We are one of the fastest growing UK B2B energy companies and businesses are coming to us because of our renewable and green credentials, but also our customer service and the way we operate,” says Rehmanwala. “We have had success when it comes to domestic and B2B customer service rankings, having been in first and second place on a number of occasions. We have grown on the domestic front acquiring tens of thousands of customers in the last six months.
“We have had significant growth in the B2B market in the last few years as our ethos, propositions and customer service resonates with our customers. We look forward to growing in this sector even further,” he adds.
“We see the home becoming a hub for energy through the use of smart meters, time of use tariffs, a portfolio of solar rooftops and batteries in homes, 2-way electric vehicle chargers, heat pumps, and optimising that in homes and businesses to have a democratisation of energy where there is a lot more local usage of energy in communities and businesses, taking pressure off the grid. It also takes the pressure off cost for homes and businesses,” says Rehmanwala.
PLANET BEFORE PROFIT
The energy markets had a tumultuous time due to global events and its impact on UK wholesale energy prices. “We have navigated that successfully as a business. In the last three or four years, more than 30 businesses failed in the market due to challenges in the wholesale market and cashflow issues,” says Rehmanwala. “We are now a really well established independent renewable energy company looking to propel our growth in a sustainable way.”
Government figures show wholesale gas costs for households remain 75% above their level before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Climate Change Committee said in June 2026 that the UK is not moving fast enough to shield households and businesses from volatile fossil fuel prices, while Parliament has set the seventh carbon budget at an 87% cut on 1990 levels by 2042. “It has been an interesting time, but also fun. We are now at a very stimulating time for the industry and the company. There may be market reform coming around achieving more stable wholesale and retail prices for consumers because we know that energy prices contribute to inflation, higher interest rates, and the macro-economic climate. The last cost of living crisis came off the back of what happened with energy prices,” says Rehmanwala.
The company’s ethics reach its own emissions. In September 2026 Ecotricity announced that it is buying carbon removals from regenerative British farms through Agreena, aiming to cover all of its hard-to-abate Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. “We are a longstanding, deep green energy company that domestic and business customers can trust. When they look at what we can provide for them, alongside our consistent and considered growth in a challenging industry, they will see renewable energy that is already being provided to hundreds of thousands of customers,” says Rehmanwala. “If they want to continue on a path to net zero in the UK, we are an important player in that space and we are vision and mission driven, putting planet before profit.
“Previously, I wasn’t sure if it was possible, but we have turned things down because we were not convinced they were right for the planet. Our ethics run deep throughout the business and stand behind everything we do,” says Rehmanwala.
With 200,000 homes and 60,000 businesses on supply and its biggest project awaiting construction, Ecotricity continues to build, generate, trade and sell the renewable energy Britain needs on its path to net zero.