Ray Valley Solar Park
One of the UK’s largest community-owned solar parks
Ray Valley Solar is our first ground mount solar park, and our biggest project by far. It was connected to the grid in July 2022. Since then, it has increased the clean electricity we generate five times over.
It’s owned by the community, through our investors. That means the money it makes doesn’t go to distant shareholders. It goes back into community benefit – around £13 million over the park’s lifetime.
2,000 years in the making
The site sits near Arncott, three miles south-east of Bicester. Roman soldiers once drilled here, and a Roman ditch still runs around its edge. In Saxon times, King Ethelred the Unready granted the land to Abingdon Abbey. Today, it’s home to 36,000 solar panels, grazing sheep and great crested newts.
Read about the history of Ray Valley Solar Park
Panels that work both ways
Ray Valley was one of the first solar parks in the country to use bifacial panels. These capture sunlight on both sides, using light reflected up from the ground. They work especially well in spring, and on cloudy days when daylight is diffuse. The result is about 10% more electricity across the year.
The surplus funds work that cuts energy use and tackles climate change. That includes free energy assessments and grants for small businesses through Energy Solutions Oxfordshire, and grants for community groups across our network.
We are so thrilled to have built our first ever ground mount solar park, is having a significant impact on the amount of green electricity produced in Oxfordshire. We are committed to putting community energy at the heart of the net zero carbon energy system.
Dr Barbara Hammond MBE, CEO, Low Carbon Hub
The history of Ray Valley Solar Park
We were recently joined by a number of our lovely investors for a tour of Ray Valley Solar Park in North Oxfordshire, where we found out more about the fascinating history of the site. Looking at Ray Valley today, you might not immediately think of Roman soldiers drilling in formation, or Saxon monks tending to […]
The build
- 2020 – We acquire the project rights to connect to the grid.
- January 2021 – Final design is signed off.
- February 2021 – We complete our loan agreement with Triodos Bank.
- March 2021 – Our share raise reaches the £3 million target in record time.
- May 2021 – Construction starts on the site.
- January 2022 – The final solar panels arrive on site.
- February 2022 – Oxford City Council provides funding of £4.1 million.
- July 2022 – Connection to the national electricity grid.
- 2026 – Groundworks for the battery are completed
Landscape and biodiversity
A solar park can be good for wildlife. At Ray Valley, the land between the panels is still grazed by sheep. We’ve planted new native hedges and trees, and created wildflower meadow. We’ve also built new ponds for great crested newts, the UK’s most protected amphibian, which were already living on the site. Measures include:
- New native species hedges – 3.7 km proposed.
- Pond maintenance and implementation – 3 existing ponds and creation of new pond to support Great Crested Newts (present in the area).
- Native aquatic vegetation would be planted in the pond including;
- curled pondweed (Potamogeton crispus),
- common hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum).
- Plus, a total of over 60 new trees and shrubs around the pond.
- Retention of pasture land within the site which is intended to be grazed by sheep (continuation of existing use).
- Creation of Wildflower Grassland around pond areas;
- Emorsgate EM4 Meadow Mixture for Clay which will provide a species-rich grassland mix appropriate to the prevailing soil type.
- Introduction of a bee-hive operation that our Asset Management sub-contractor has implemented on other sites to enhance pollination while producing local honey.
Over the summer of 2021 Low Carbon Hub retained University of Leeds student, Gina Moran, as a Sustainable Research Intern in advance of the construction of Ray Valley Solar.
Gina was tasked with researching the available guidance on what is the best social and environmental practice for constructing, operating and maintaining a solar park. This project culminated in the production of the ‘Best Social and Environmental Practice’ guidance document which offers recommendations, informed by the research, on how we can achieve the greatest standard of environmental and social sustainability at the Ray Valley Solar site.
The next chapter: adding a battery
Ray Valley Solar is our most successful project, so we’re making it work even harder. We’re adding the UK’s first community-owned solar battery on the same site as a solar farm.
Solar panels generate the most power in the middle of the day, when demand is lowest. The battery will store that power and release it in the evening, when people need it most. That means more value from every unit of clean electricity we generate. Over its lifetime, the battery is expected to add more than £1 million to the surplus available for community benefit.
Thanks to our investors, the share offer for the battery reached its fundraising target. The groundworks are now complete, and the battery is expected to be installed and running in 2027.
FAQs
How did this project come about?
It started with one of our community group members. They wanted a planned ground mount solar project in their neighbourhood to be community-owned. That project didn’t go ahead. But it led to further talks with the developer, Low Carbon Ltd, and those talks became Ray Valley Solar.
We also asked our members how they felt about ground mount solar. The response was overwhelmingly positive, as long as the projects were responsibly managed and part of a wider range of action on net zero. That gave us the confidence to go ahead.
How is the project funded?
We were delighted to raise £4.3 million of new investment in the Community Energy Fund to support Ray Valley Solar. This project wouldn’t have been possible without our investors’ incredible support.
A loan from Triodos Bank enabled us to develop the project.
Additional loan funding to The Low Carbon Hub IPS Limited from Oxford City Council also supported our delivery of the project.
Finally, the project was supported by grant funding through the Innovate UK Prospering from the Energy Revolution programme, as the solar park formed a key part of trials for Project LEO.
Chris Cullen, Relationship Manager At Triodos Bank UK, said;
“As a bank that’s committed to addressing the climate emergency, as well as promoting social cohesion, we see projects like Ray Valley Solar as vitally important. Not only is this set to be the biggest community-owned solar park in the country, but the research and work that Low Carbon Hub and Project LEO are doing will have a wider impact across Oxfordshire and the UK.
“We need projects like this to demonstrate that community energy can play a key part in helping us achieve our net zero targets, all while keeping profits within that community to further benefit local people”
What is Ray Valley’s role in Project LEO?
Ray Valley Solar was a key trial site for Project LEO – Local Energy Oxfordshire. This was a multi-partner, collaborative project looking to accelerate the UK’s transition to a zero carbon energy system.
Trials at Ray Valley Solar helped us understand how generation assets, like a solar park, can help us balance the grid at a local level.
Through Ray Valley we:
- Ran trials to test the system and demonstrate the potential a smart and co-ordinated use of local generation, storage, and demand has in decarbonising the energy system as a whole
- Tested innovative local long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that would harness local power consumption to make community-owned energy projects financially viable without the need for subsidies such as the Feed-in Tariff
- Future-proofed the project with significant potential for battery storage on site
- Created replicable business models for community energy projects at this scale.
Find out more about Project LEO.
Could the land used for a solar park be better used for something else like growing food?
Figures calculated by Professor Nick Eyre at the University of Oxford show that even if ground mount solar provided 100% of the UK’s total energy demand in 2050, it would need only 2.5% of UK land.
In reality, ground mount solar will only need to provide around 20% of our energy needs. That equates to just 0.5% of UK land, about the same area as all the UK’s golf courses.
Nick Eyre, Professor of Energy and Climate Policy at the University of Oxford, says:
“Opponents of renewable energy often cite the very large land area required. But for solar energy, it is a myth. The UK could supply 20% of the total energy we will need in 2050 using solar panels, by covering only the same area currently used for golf.”
How do you source materials for your projects?
We use the information and grading from the Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) to help inform our procurement decisions. For example, the solar panels at Ray Valley Solar, our ground mount solar park, were made by LONGi, one of the few companies to have achieved Gold status through this process. Our other suppliers are also rated positively.
The government’s Solar Roadmap, published in 2025, specifically recognises the SSI’s work: “Since its inception in 2022, the SSI has developed two standards focused on improving governance, sustainability and transparency throughout the global solar value chain. As part of the SSI’s ESG Standard, solar manufacturing sites are audited by independent third party assessment bodies on governance and business ethics; environment; and human and labour rights.”
We are also signatories to the UK Solar Industry Supply Chain Statement, which condemns and opposes any abuse of human rights, including forced labour, anywhere in the global supply chain. The statement also supports the highest possible levels of transparency and sustainability throughout the value chain. It commits signatories to developing an industry-led traceability protocol, to help ensure supply chains are free of human rights abuses.
End of life and recycling
Solar panels typically last 25 to 30 years or more. When they reach the end of their life, we will meet our obligations under the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Regulations, which govern how electrical equipment is collected and recycled. Only a handful of UK companies specialise in solar panel recycling at the moment. But recycling methods are developing quickly in Europe, and we’re following this closely.