Low Carbon Hub Small Grants Awarded

23 March 2021

We are pleased to announce the awarding of five Low Carbon Hub small grants of £500 each.

All Community Members of the Low Carbon Hub CIC are eligible to apply for funding. Our community groups can either apply individually or in consortia with other Community shareholders. The grants can be used to fund activities that contribute to the Hub’s aim: to cut Oxfordshire’s carbon footprint and contribute to creating a decentralised and locally-owned renewable energy system.

This year we have awarded grants to:

Improving Public Accessibility and On-site Engagement (Osney Lock Hydro) | £500

In a continuation of last years grant, Osney Lock Hydro (OLH) has been awarded a further £500 to further the improvements being made on site. The group has been given longer to implement the work due to COVID restrictions.

Osney Lock Hydro is the first community-owned hydro scheme to be built on the Thames. Set on the River Thames banks at Osney Lock, opposite Oxford’s first electrical power station, it is one of only three areas suitable for hydro generation in the city. The Osney Lock Hydro group wants to harness the river’s power to generate green energy and reduce their community’s carbon emissions. The hydro will also create a sustainable income stream to fund environmental projects well into the next half of the century.

OLH have applied for a small grant to help towards completing the hard landscaping needed to install the landscaping and human sundial. Local residents have been involved in the design and creating of the human sundial. The group would like to open up the site to more school visits and increase awareness of Osney Lock Hydro.

Growing in the Face of Challenge (Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon) | £500

RHILC has been awarded a small grant that will contribute to the creation of a short film on their recent tree-planting project. The filming took place on 27 February 2021, and the final product will be titled: RHILC’s Tree Planting Story.

The small grant will help to pay for a videographer to film and edit material for a new film that tells the story of a community fighting climate change. The film will be used in the forthcoming exhibition at the Old Fire Station of “20 Stories for 2020” planned to showcase the work of Oxfordshire CAG’s. It will raise awareness of RHILC’s ongoing tree planting work and community orchard.

Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon (RHILC) is a community action group in south-east Oxford. They aim to involve local people in campaigns to reduce their carbon footprint and foster sustainable energy production. RHILC also tries to raise awareness of climate change’s real threats to their community and the wider world.

D:Two LED Lighting (Greener Henley) | £500

Greener Henley has received £500 to install LED lighting in the local community centre (D:Two).

The D:TWO community centre in Henley is thriving hall used by many local groups in the area and hosts the local food bank and community café. Replacing the lighting with LED lighting is estimated to save £537 per annum in energy bills.

Greener Henley is a community group tackling the climate and ecological crisis using education, action, and collaboration.

YMCA Community Hall Roof Insulation (Henley Climate Emergency Working Group) | £500

HCLWG has received a small grant to implement roof insulation in the Henley YMCA Community Hall. Following an energy audit organized through Low Carbon Hub and carried out by EIE it was recommended that the roof insulation of the YMCA Hall be increased from 100mm to 300mm, thereby reducing heat loss in Winter and reducing over-heating in Summer. The hall is used by a broad range of groups and the measures will improve the comfort of the hall users considerably. The energy audit estimated that the insulation measures would decrease the hall’s energy use by 5%.

Henley Town Council declared a Climate Emergency in early 2019. As a result, a group of Councillors and residents was created to find ways of working together to reduce Henley’s carbon footprint. They have been instrumental in rolling out the Solar Streets project to enable entire streets to install solar panels at a discounted rate.

Hill End Energy Efficiency Cosy Dormitories Project (WOCoRe) | £500

West Oxford Community Renewables has been awarded a small grant of £500 to go towards the dormitories’ energy efficiency at the Hill End Educational Centre (Charity).

Following an energy audit by EIE as part of the OxFutures programme it was discovered that the dormitories had no loft insulation at all. The centre is used by many schools and youth groups and the insulation measures should make their stay at Hill End more comfortable.

Hill End has been offering unique outdoor learning experiences since the 1920s. They are a multi-use site, providing a diverse range of outdoor activities and facilities to schools and organised groups. In 2019, they received an OxFutures grant to install secondary glazing in their dormitory buildings.

West Oxford Community Renewables develops community-owned renewables in West Oxford. Since their inception in 2009, the group has grown 220kWp of renewable energy projects, mainly solar PV with a small wind turbine, and developing a micro-hydro at Osney Lock, which was established as a new entity Osney Lock Hydro to deliver and manage the project.

We are very excited to see how all of these projects progress and look forward to updating you in the future!