Green energy tycoon to launch UK’s first electric airline

The green energy tycoon Dale Vince is planning to launch Britain’s first electric airline in a move designed to prove polluting industries can decarbonise. Ecojet, styled as a "flag carrier for green Britain", will launch early next year with a 19-seater plane travelling on a route between Edinburgh and Southampton. The planes will run initially on kerosene-based fuel for the first year, before being retrofitted with engines that convert green hydrogen into electricity. Vince founded the UK’s first green energy company, Ecotricity, in 1995 and has spent his career launching low-carbon and ethically minded ventures across energy, transport, food and football. He is the chair of League Two’s Forest Green Rovers, known as the "world’s greenest football club".