Dale Vince, the CEO of Stroud-based Ecotricity, has accused rival Good Energy of 'underhand' tactics after the firm sold its windmills and solar farms ahead of a shareholder meeting.

Good Energy sold its two wind farms and six solar installations for £24.5 million. A move that Vince, whose firm has a 25% stake in Good Energy, said made 'no sense'.

The battle between the two green energy suppliers has certainly been generating a lot of heat.

Ecotricity failed in a hostile takeover of the company last year and called for an emergency general meeting on Christmas Eve to discuss the sale and call for the sacking of the chairman.

But before the meeting, scheduled for February, Good Energy announced the sale.

Dale Vince said: "It makes no sense for Good Energy to sell its generating assets. Generation is the very best protection against market volatility - none of the 28 companies broken so far by the energy crisis had their own generation portfolio.

"Good Energy has also reported £5m in losses from this crisis so far - and it will be much worse without those generating assets. This sale is being rushed through before shareholders are able to vote on it at an upcoming EGM called to discuss this issue.

"The original sale timetable has been torn up to make it a done deal before we can all vote on 11th February. It's a very underhand way to run a company."

He said shareholders should have been given a say on the sale which he called 'a strategic blunder'.

But responding, Nigel Pocklington, CEO of Good Energy, said: "This was process run by KPMG, as announced on 24th November 2021 and completed within the Q1 2022 timetable that we set out at the time, and any suggestion that it was anything other than a robust process is utter nonsense.

"Good Energy sources its power from a network of over 1,900 independent UK generators and this group now includes the new owners of the generation assets. Our defence against volatility is exactly the same as it was at the start of the week."

He added: "Good Energy has not reported a £5m loss - anybody who would like an accurate financial report should read our statutory financial statements to the market, to which we provide the link."