This year we’ve continued to grow our renewable energy portfolio, with 4 new rooftop solar installations at CTG (extending an existing array), Thames Travel, West Witney Primary School, and Langford Village Community School. These bring our total number of renewable energy generation installations to 47, and add 210 kW to our total installed capacity. We must continue to increase renewable generation if we are to meet our energy demands without relying on fossil fuels. We’ll be continuing to grow this portfolio over the next year, exploring potential ground mount solar sites as part of Project LEO (Local Energy Oxfordshire).

With these new additions we have generated a total of 3.8 GWh of green electricity this year. This represents over 1,000 tonnes of carbon emissions prevented. We’ve donated £38,200 from the Low Carbon Hub IPS as community benefit, bringing the total donated to £435,826.

As well as this increase in renewable energy generation, we have also seen growth in our ‘powering down’ activities to reduce energy demand. We’ve secured continued funding for Cosy Homes Oxfordshire, our home retrofit programme, and for OxFutures, a programme focused on boosting the low carbon economy in Oxfordshire. We continue our partnership with Ashden to deliver the LESS CO2 sustainable schools programme, including offering a free energy audit to all local schools who register. We are also excited to be part of a new consortium aiming to de-risk energy efficiency work for SMEs (small and medium enterprises), which includes us creating a brand-new Energy Services Company named Energy Solutions Oxfordshire.