In 2013, Oxford Bus Company was the Low Carbon Hub’s very first community-owned solar PV installation. We have since expanded from this single rooftop to a significant renewable energy portfolio working with schools, businesses and community organisations across Oxfordshire.

In 2019, it was fantastic to work with Thames Travel, another subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group (like Oxford Bus Company), to install our 44th renewable energy site with a solar PV array at their bus depot in Didcot.

It has been great to work with the Go-Ahead Group once more in getting this project off the ground. This is also the first installation we worked on with solar installer Noble Green Energy who have been great at understanding the complexities of working at busy bus depot.

This project is the first of many new installations at the Low Carbon Hub that will form part of Project LEO, or Local Energy Oxfordshire – one of the most ambitious, wide-ranging, innovative, and holistic smart grid trials ever conducted in the UK.

LEO is one of four national demonstrator projects supported by the Industrial Strategy Challenge fund and is a collaboration between industry, academia, councils, and social enterprise. The project will explore how we can best transition to a smarter, flexible energy system and how households, businesses and communities can both enable this and release its benefits.

The Low Carbon Hub’s renewable energy projects, starting with this Thames Travel installation, will provide clean energy generation, storage and data to demonstrate flexibility and energy services.

It’s appropriate that the first installation to be delivered as part of our new project LEO collaboration builds on our oldest partnership. This has been a very successful and exciting first step on a three-year journey that we are delighted to be able to play a key part in.

TOM HEEL
Business Development Director, Low Carbon Hub

Could your business save money on energy and cut carbon emissions?

If you work in a business in Oxfordshire, and you’re interested in finding out more about how you could work with us to install a solar array on your building, please get in touch.