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Sheep grazing beneath the solar panels at Ray Valley Solar Park – a working landscape of farming, beehives, and wildlife ponds. The battery installation builds on this existing site, strengthening what is already in place.

INVEST IN THE UK’S FIRST COMMUNITY-OWNED BATTERY

Author mm Beth McAllister

Publication date 26 March 2026

Will you invest in the Community Energy Fund and help install the UK’s first community-owned battery?

Low Carbon Hub is re-launching our Community Energy Fund to raise £1.3 million in community shares to install battery storage at Ray Valley Solar, one of the UK’s largest community-owned solar parks.

Sheep grazing beneath the solar panels at Ray Valley Solar Park – a working landscape of farming, beehives, and wildlife ponds. The battery installation builds on this existing site, strengthening what is already in place.

The battery will be the UK’s first community-owned battery co-located with a community owned solar park and represents the next step in strengthening community-owned renewable energy in Oxfordshire. 

Battery storage will allow more of the clean electricity generated at Ray Valley Solar to be used effectively, reducing wasted renewable energy and helping shift power to times when it’s needed most. By making better use of the electricity already being generated, the project will increase carbon savings and support long-term community benefit funding. 

Read more about the battery

We are inviting investors to help raise £1.3 million through our Community Energy Fund, the investment fund that gives us the flexibility to respond quickly to new clean energy projects like this one. 

Investors receive a target return of 5% as well as becoming members of the Low Carbon Hub, joining our community of almost 2,000 investor members.  

Investing with Low Carbon Hub

For this community share raise, we are working with impact investment platform Ethex to reach investors across the UK who want their money to do good. 

We are also grateful to We Have the POWER for providing early-stage catalytic funding that helped bring the project to this stage. 

This is an opportunity to be part of the next phase of community owned clean energy. Join us.  

How to invest in the Community Energy Fund

Ray Valley Solar has already shown what’s possible when communities come together to own renewable energy. Adding battery storage is the natural next step. It means we can make better use of the clean electricity we’re already generating, strengthen long-term community benefit, and build a more resilient energy system based on renewables.

Dr Barbara Hammond, CEO, Low Carbon Hub