Over the past eight years, the Low Carbon Hub has more than trebled in size. At its smallest, our team consisted of 3 members of staff and we have grown to our current number of 16! We have also increased the number of our investor members to over 1000, a number which we hope will…

Home energy consumption accounts for around 30% of total energy used in the UK, and around 20% of our total carbon emissions. According to Ofgem, the average UK home with a medium energy consumption uses 12,000 kWh of gas per year and 3,100 kWh of electricity per year. That represents total carbon emissions of 3,067kg…

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…

We would like to say a massive thank you to all who came to the ‘Inspired by Communities’ event prior to the Low Carbon Hub Joint AGM on 7 October and who helped to make it such a genuinely inspiring experience. The room at the Town Hall was full with many of our CIC Community…

Cosy Homes Oxfordshire, a home retrofit service, has recently launched and we are seeking to register new building contractors (builders, architects, energy assessors, surveyors, and more) and Retrofit Coordinators to undertake energy efficiency improvement work across Oxfordshire. If you work within the construction industry or building trades, or know someone who does, then encourage them…

For the third year in a row, we are thrilled to report that most people who responded to our annual ‘How are we doing? survey find us to be committed to the creation of a low carbon, locally-owned renewable energy system and trust in our expertise.  Every year we ask our members, supporters, community groups,…

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 were thrilled to hear that three communities in Oxfordshire offered to combine the funding raised through the carrier bag charge in their local Co-ops and donate it to our Community Benefit Fund.  Many thanks to communities involved in Banbury, Central Oxford and Kidlington & North West Oxfordshire for this donation of just over £9,000.  The…

We are thrilled to announce that the 2019 round of our Community Energy Fund raised £726,650 in investment to support community energy in Oxfordshire. We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who chose to invest in us and put their money to work tackling climate change. In addition to investment raised through…