Investor
Portal

Clean energy solutions

After you’ve taken the first steps towards greater energy efficiency by completing our community energy efficiency checklist, you may want to consider including clean energy sources to boost your community’s carbon reduction even further.

Clean energy options such as solar panels and heat pumps can significantly increase your energy efficiency drive. On this page, you’ll find information about various clean energy solutions suitable for community groups, helping you make informed decisions to create a sustainable future.

Clean energy options

Solar

  • Remember, solar panels produce electricity during the day and more in the summer than the winter, so consider how that fits with your energy use 
  • Any electricity you generate that is not used on site when it is produced will be exported to the grid; usually the payment per kWh is less than what you will pay to your supplier – see this information on the Smart Export Guarantee 
  • Find out if your building could be suitable for hosting Low Carbon Hub roof top solar panels. We’ll install roof top solar at no cost to you, and supply you with cheap, clean energy. And surplus will help fund our many other community low carbon projects.
  • The Centre for Sustainable Energy have a solar PV assessment calculator to support more communities to get solar power which will provide easy, quick, accurate, and independent predictions about the viability for solar PV on buildings 
  • Another tool that is free to use is this one from Open Solar, but be aware it is from a company that is looking to sell its services.
  • If solar generation does not match your patterns of energy use, installing battery storage can provide more low-cost energy to the building 

Heat pumps

  • If your building’s heating system is nearing the end of its life, it can be a good idea to replace it with efficient heat pumps that run on electricity but doing so requires careful planning 
  • Ground or air source heat pumps can use existing heating pipework but are best suited to buildings that are well-insulated 
  • Some heat pump designs can also provide efficient cooling in hot weather.

EV chargers

  • EV chargers, while not reducing energy, can promote use of electric vehicles to support carbon and pollution reduction
  • Depending on your community, it can be useful to add to the local EV-charging infrastructure for local residents or visitors 
  • Make sure you know if you need permission for installing EV chargers at your site. Oxfordshire County Council has information on its website 
  • You will need to consider how chargers will be looked after and any issues addressed (see the case studies below) 
  • Chargers have different charge speeds: fast charging takes hours and is suitable for longer stays or overnight charging 
  • Chargers can also have security systems to limit access and payment systems.

Ventilation and cooling

  • As UK summers continue to have more heatwaves, community buildings can act to provide comfortable spaces: insulation and shading can limit overheating in hot weather 
  • Management of doors and windows can limit in-door temperatures and purge build-up of heat; note that natural and powered ventilation (heat pumps) can be much more efficient than traditional air conditioning.

Ventilation and cooling

  • As UK summers continue to have more heatwaves, community buildings can act to provide comfortable spaces: insulation and shading can limit overheating in hot weather 
  • Management of doors and windows can limit in-door temperatures and purge build-up of heat; note that natural and powered ventilation (heat pumps) can be much more efficient than traditional air conditioning.

Advice and support

Ready to get started but in need of extra funding?

Funding options

  • Our Energy Solutions Oxfordshire (ESOx) service has information on finance and funding, including charities and not-for-profit organisations 
  • Community First Oxfordshire has information, in particular relating to village halls and parish councils, and see information on their grants.
  • The fortnightly CAG Oxfordshire newsletter The Key has a useful funding section, as has their website 
  • Local authorities can also apply for funding (generally capital) at favourable rates from the Public Works Loan Board and pass that on to community groups 
  • Donations can play a role, e.g. using a platform like Crowdfunder (there are others, we’re not making any recommendations).
  • You could also see if your local authorities can offer support in various ways; for South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils you can find information here (July 2023).

Finding contractors and installer

  • Our service Energy Solutions Oxfordshire (ESOx) offers services around procurement, project management, sourcing funding, and monitoring work once implemented 
  • Try MCS, TrustMark, or  Buy With Confidence to search for vetted contractors near you – it is good practice to get more than one quote 
  • Yougen offer tips for finding a reputable installer 
  • Which? has a useful article on buying solar panels in particular 
  • We are always happy to share the list of solar PV installers we currently use; we do not make any recommendations – please contact us through our Helpdesk. 
  • We have a found a few metrics useful in differentiating between quotes of different sizes and using different technologies (such as solar PV with battery vs non battery and one battery vs another battery quotes). Using these should allow you to get a clearer picture of the potential energy savings for each quote and from there the financial and carbon implications of each of the options available to you. The metrics are:
    • kWh/kWp [kilo Watt peak] – known as ‘yield’, telling you how much power will be produced compared to the generating capacity
    • £/kWp – comparing the price of different-sized systems to show how much generation capacity you are getting for your money
    • kWh used on site – letting you know how much of the generated energy will be used by your building and what will be exported to the grid; if you can provide your electricity consumption data to your installer they should be able to let you know
    • kWh saved by battery per year (if you’re looking at the option) – showing you how much energy you would save with a battery, and — when compared to kWh used on site – it will give you an idea how much more a battery would save, to then help decide if a battery is worth it for you
    • £/kWh saved – applying a monetary value (use the unit cost of kWh on your current bills) to both the figures you have for kWh used on site and kWh saved by battery per year, allows you to project the anticipated financial benefits of the different combinations of array sizes and technology types.
  • Other factors to think about when deciding which quote to choose include ease of operations, warranty, and maintenance. If the installation is easy to maintain and to find replacement parts for, that will help the system to be operating at full capacity as much as possible. You can also look at differences in the warranties available. It may be different ones offered by the manufacturers of components such as PV panels, inverter, and battery (if applicable). From an operations and maintenance standpoint, understanding what monitoring equipment is provided by each party and how easy it will be for you to access this may also be a point of differentiation. Having access to monitoring data can help understand performance and diagnose any potential faults.
  • The Action on Carbon and Energy in Schools (ACES) website has lots of useful ‘how to’ videos. Although created with schools in mind, they cover many topics relevant to community buildings: from how to find out your annual energy use to managing your heating controls.