announced one million pounds worth of sales to Japan as well as sales to France, Norway, Denmark, the US and Belgium. Political donations The company has donated to several political parties that support subsidies for renewable energy. In November 2013 it donated £20,000 to the Green Party. On 10 February 2015 Ecotricity announced that it would be donating £250,000 to the electoral fighting fund of the UK Labour Party. This decision alienated some of its customers, in particular supporters of the Green Party as they felt some Labour policies are at odds with Ecotricity's avowed green ethical stance. Ecotricity had already donated £120,000 to Labour in November 2014, including £20,000 to the local group in Stroud which was trying (unsuccessfully) to unseat Neil Carmichael, an opponent of wind farms in Gloucestershire. In the six months before the 2015 general election Ecotricity donated a total of £380,000 to Labour. The day after the election of 7 May 2015 the company donated £50,000 to the Liberal Democrats, including £20,000 to the group in the Kingston upon Thames constituency which had been lost by Ed Davey, the pro-renewables Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. Ecotricity donated £20,000 to Keir Starmer's 2020 Labour Party leadership election campaign. Grid-level storage At the end of 2017 Ecotricity was granted planning permission to build one of the UK's first grid scale battery storage projects on its Alveston site. The 10 megawatt project is intended to share the grid connection with the three new windmills there, providing the company with peak-shaving. Virtual power plant In May 2018 it was announced that Ecotricity would start building a Virtual power plant to more efficiently use and manage the electricity usage. Diamonds In October 2020, Vince announced the company would make lab grown diamonds using carbon dioxide captured from the air, water and power from their own green supply. See also Green electricity in the United Kingdom Wind power in the United Kingdom Energy policy of the United Kingdom Energy in the United Kingdom References External links Renewable energy companies of England Wind power companies of England Power stations in South West England Companies based in Stroud, Gloucestershire British companies established in 1996 Energy companies established in 1996 Renewable resource companies established in 1996 1996 establishments in England