Carbon balancing donations to our Energy Revolution programme from members in 2020 will be invested with the Low Carbon Hub (LCH) to help them grow their portfolio of community-owned renewable energy projects in Oxfordshire. Despite many events being cancelled or postponed the Energy Revolution programme received travel balancing donations from members who adapted to create covid-safe events, these included Shambala’s series of camping weekends, Carry On Kelmarsh, Love Saves The Day’s pop up outdoor dining experience, Breaking Bread, and theatre company The Handlebard’s outdoor tour. The donations will support LCH to develop 19 MW ground mount solar park at Ray Valley, the new project will form a significant ‘anchor generation load’ for their ‘Project LEO’ (Local Energy Oxfordshire) enabling them to run trials at scale that demonstrate the potential of local energy to decarbonise the energy system.
Planning permission has already been secured for the Ray Valley Solar project; the final project design is in development but it is anticipated to comprise 45,000 solar panels on an 80-acre site with significant battery storage on site.
Ray Valley Solar will:
- Be the largest community-owned solar park in the UK
- Generate 18 GWh of clean green electricity every year, enough to power over 6,000 homes
- Keep £2.6 million worth of energy spend in the local economy each year
- Provide £13 million community benefit funding over the project lifetime.
The Low Carbon Hub already manage 47 renewable energy installations; generating 4.5 GWh of green electricity a year (enough to power 1,465 typical homes) and the partners hosting the installations include 31 schools, 6 businesses and 3 community organisations. Their projects not only produce clean energy but also aim to accelerate the transition to the zero carbon energy system needed in the future, providing electricity, heat and a clean transport system – all powered by renewables. Find out more about LCH on our partner pages HERE.
Photo by pexels – image of ground mounted solar park not at Ray Valley