The Low Carbon Hub (LCH) has launched a fundraiser to create the UK’s first community-owned battery storage site, at Ray Valley solar park.
LCH says the solar park has outperformed expectations since it began generating in 2022, but grid constraints mean that on very sunny days, some of the electricity it generates cannot be used or sold at its full value.
It hopes that adding battery storage to the site will make it more productive by enabling the energy to be stored and released when demand is highest and prices are stronger.
Battery storage will save 809 MWh of clean energy going from to waste a year, says LCH in its share offer document, and will unlock 102 tonnes in additional carbon savings by reducing wasted renewable energy and shifting clean power to when it is needed most.
It also argues that the move will “strengthen local resilience by reinvesting 100% of surplus income into local climate action, fuel poverty support and grassroots sustainability initiatives”.
The investment is targeting a return of 5%, and investors will make you a member of Low Carbon Hub, with a stake in the future of community-owned energy.
Since 2012, Low Carbon Hub has built 56 community-owned renewable energy projects across Oxfordshire.
It has raised more than £10m in community investment from nearly 2,000 investors, and has in turn invested over £1m of surplus into community benefit programmes.
LCH says it offers a “pioneering double carbon cut” model, where projects cut emissions, and 100% of its surplus income goes towards further carbon reduction in schools, homes, businesses, and communities.
A successful share offer, it adds, will “make a powerful statement in support of community-owned climate action and a fair energy transition.
