Over the past eight years, the Low Carbon Hub has partnered with 29 schools to install 5,647 solar PV panels. Our Solar Schools service offers schools a comprehensive solar installation service to power your schools with community-owned, discounted green electricity. Schools signing up for a free solar rooftop survey can apply for a grant to…

In November 2019 we installed an extension to our existing solar project on the roof of UTC Aerospace Systems CTG in Banbury, Oxfordshire. The background This solar roof array was already our largest rooftop solar install, and thought to be the UK’s largest community-owned rooftop solar array. When first installed, there were 2590 solar pv…

On 17 October a group of Oxford University master’s students visited Sandford Hydro as part of their Energy Systems course. The group received a tour from Harry Orchard, our Operations and Maintenance Assistant, and were shown the inner workings of the electric hydro plant. They went inside the control room where it’s possible to see the overview…

At a meeting of cabinet on 29 May 2019, Oxford City Council agreed to renew their offer of a revolving loan facility of £2.3m to Low Carbon Hub to support the build of more community energy projects in Oxfordshire. The funds will enable the Low Carbon Hub to build more renewable energy projects across the…

We are really excited to announce the launch of Project LEO or ‘Local Energy Oxfordshire’ – a £40m three-year collaborative project that will change the energy system as we know it. The project has been awarded £13.8m from the UK Government Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, managed by Innovate UK, and will be supported by £26m…

We’re really pleased to welcome our 28th solar school to the Low Carbon Hub. Longfields Primary and Nursery School in Bicester now have a fully installed array of solar panels that will provide around a third of the school’s energy needs.  Longfields is the latest to join a growing number of schools across Oxfordshire to…

The new generation season for Sandford Hydro is restarting again with the (slow) return of the rains! Clean electricity is now being generated by the hydro on the weir at Sandford, although not yet at full power. It is the large winter output of the hydro that brilliantly complements solar panels, which this summer experienced record…

As you’ve probably noticed, it has been fairly sunny in Oxfordshire recently!  This means that at the moment some of our solar schools who are getting most of their electricity from their solar panels. They are not only using renewable energy and cutting CO2 emissions, but they are also saving money!  Percentage of electricity currently coming from…

As well as providing help and advice, Low Carbon Hub also offers financial support to  our community shareholder groups wanting to carry out carbon-cutting activity in their community. Here is a case study of what one group did with a small grant we awarded them. Westmill Sustainable Energy Trust (WeSET) was one of the last community groups to successfully…

This video, courtesy of Stone’s Throw Media, shows an unused roof at UTC Aerospace Systems CTG in Banbury being transformed into a people’s power station. Work with us We want to work with more local businesses to develop ‘people’s power stations’ for community benefit. 

First project for social developer Low Carbon Hub within new FiTs regime Oxford, 21 November 2016 ~ CTG, a Banbury-based site of UTC Aerospace Systems, is now host to the UK’s biggest community-owned rooftop solar array. At 712kW, the 2590 panel project will generate 593,304 kWh of clean electricity every year — enough to power 150…

We asked and you chose a colour for the Archimedes screws at Sandford! Last week we did a poll to ask what colour we should specify for the three Archimedes screws at Sandford Hydro. With 36% of the vote the winner was Water Blue RAL 5021! If you’d like to receive occasional updates just about progress…