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utILIty WeeK | 14th - 20th February 2014 | 13 Investigation: Community energy LiabiLities Trade and expense creditors £162,290.98 Employee £501.16 Redundancy payments service £605.58 Director £44,800.00 Barclays Bank £10,699.00 Isle of Wight Council £122,911.67 HM Revenues and Customs £4,769.85 John Buckland £30,000.00 total £376,578.24 Creditors owed more than £20,000 Isle of Wight Council £122,911.67 SSE £80,185.81 David Green £44,800.00 John Buckland £30,000.00 Isle of Wight College £20,475.54 From statement of affairs at 10 October 2013 focused on hands-on projects such as install- ing insulation. He had little time for Green's "high concept" approach. They also clashed on policy. Green opposed plans for a biomass plant and avoided defending wind turbines in plan- ning disputes. His Ecoisland was more about experimental smart grid technology. The Footprint Trust backed a biomass plant. "We took a science view," says Harrington-Vail. "He came in shooting his mouth off… he was a well-meaning amateur. He didn't take advice or guidance." A council worker, who asked not to be identified, agrees there was little to connect Ecoisland to ordinary people. "Unless you happened to have 20 grand in your pocket and wanted to buy an electric car, there was no route in. "If I was a big company from the main- land partnering with that, I would expect to be connected with a groundswell of local activists, but that did not happen." Indeed, SSE quietly wound up its Commu- nity Energy programme in December 2012, less than five months aer launch. It "has not been as successful as originally hoped", with only "a very small number of custom- ers" signing up, a spokeswoman said. In any case, it would have fallen foul of new regula- tions being brought in to limit the number of tariffs an energy company may offer. In an interview with the local paper in February 2013, Green shows awareness of some of these criticisms. "I find it much easier trying to convince large organisations about the importance of what we're doing than the average person down the road sometimes," he admitted to the Isle of Wight County Press. The interview, while not exactly hostile, reflected mounting scepticism on the island and found some chinks in Green's armour. It described Green as a "divisive" figure and brought up the label "Ego-island" used by some of the project's critics. He was forced to defend his £61,000 sal- ary and £5,000 expenses, paid through 3 Greenlights. It is not a sum to raise eye- brows among London-based high-earners, perhaps, but it is more than three times aver- age earnings on the island. "I have had to underwrite some of the costs at times. There have even been occasions when I have had to pay the wages," he said. "It's hard to put a value on the amount of blood, sweat and tears people have put into this — the per- sonal commitment from staff and others who have worked unpaid." He went on: "I have put my whole self into this. It's desperately sad that with some of the issues we are facing, it is being so trivialised and personalised by attacks against me." Those attacks had not stopped the Isle of Wight Council awarding Ecoisland a £250,974 grant from central government in January 2013. The money, to promote the government's Green Deal energy efficiency scheme (which had problems of its own), came just in time to shore up the CIC's flag- ging finances. Months later, when the com- pany went under, the council would ask why half the money was unaccounted for. At the time, however, the injection of funds was enough for Creditsafe to declare Ecoisland creditworthy again. It gave fuel to one last drive for results. The deal with SSE having come to naught, Green planned to set up his own energy ser- vices company (Esco). The idea was to offer customers some package of energy saving technology and renewable generation that would pay for itself through bills. This could include smart fridges that turn off at peak times and run when electricity is cheaper, for example. Investors would bear the upfront costs and get a cut of profits. It is a similar model to the government's Green Deal, but with an emphasis on technology rather than insulation measures. (The Green Deal prec- edent was not an encouraging one: aer a delayed start, take-up last year was low, hampered by high interest rates.) Any excess profit would be put into the Ecoisland Trust and distributed among com- munity projects. If it worked, it would cut consumption, saving customers money as well as carbon emissions. It was at the launch of this Esco, to be backed by a "100 Club" of supporters, that Green spoke of destiny. It was, by all accounts, a rousing occasion that was fol- lowed by dinner and drinking until mid- night, for those in the party mood. A video posted online shows a room brim- ming with optimism. Green describes it as a "watershed moment" and rounds off with February 2011 – David Green launches the Ecoisland Partnership community interest company. For a period, he works part-time on the project while continuing to do PR work through his consultancy 3 Greenlights August 2012 – SSE strikes a partnership deal with Ecoisland, promising to donate money for every account registered to the programme. Ian Marchant, then chief executive, endorses the scheme: "I urge all residents to embrace this wonderful and exciting movement." October 2012 – Data company Creditsafe flags up a warning to potential suppliers on Ecoisland Partnership's file: "Caution – credit at your discretion." Countdown to disaster