Southill Community Energy

Running a community-owned solar farm near Charlbury since 2016

Southill Community Energy developed and operates Southill Solar, a community-owned solar farm on a 45-acre site on the Cornbury Estate.

The farm generates enough electricity to power over 1,000 homes in Charlbury, Finstock and Fawler. You can view its generation data in real time, updated every five minutes.

The site lies within the Cotswolds National Landscape. To keep it out of sight, the panels sit in a fold of land that can’t be seen from the road. The group works with an ecologist on a plan to boost biodiversity, and has its own beekeeper, who created the UK’s first Thermosolar Beehive.

As a community benefit society, Southill Community Energy uses surplus from the solar farm to fund local low carbon projects. The grants are given out by Sustainable Charlbury, a fellow Low Carbon Hub community group.