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We’re really pleased to announce that Triodos Bank will provide a loan to help fund the construction of Ray Valley Solar, our first ground mount solar park.

Triodos Bank UK has approved a new loan facility to go toward the construction of the project this year. Further lending will also be made available for its operation, with the park expected to begin generating in autumn 2021.

As well as the Triodos loan, Ray Valley can go ahead thanks to the incredible support of people who together invested £4.5 million in our Community Energy Fund as well as a loan from Oxford City Council and grant funding from Project LEO.

Construction has started on the site this week and we look forward to sharing updates from the project as we go.

Ray Valley Solar will be the Low Carbon Hub’s first ground mount solar project and will result in a five-fold increase in our annual green electricity generation. Situated in Arncott, three miles south east of Bicester, the site neighbours an MOD logistics site, HM Bullingdon prison and two existing solar parks.

Ray Valley Solar will:

Be the largest community-owned solar park in the UK

Surpluses produced from Ray Valley Solar will be used to benefit the local community, with an aim to create over £10 million of community benefit funding over the project’s lifetime. The focus of this funding will be on supporting community initiatives that reduce energy demand across Oxfordshire and help tackle climate change – such as grants to support energy efficiency measures and working with schools to bring climate change onto the curriculum.

"Ray Valley Solar Park is our first ground mount solar project, but it will be our 48th renewable energy project. We’re really pleased to be working with Triodos Bank to help make this project happen, an organisation with a strong track record and such closely aligned values to us.

Along with their finance, we’ve also raised £4.5 million in investment into our community share offer, the Community Energy Fund. We were bowled over by the level of support for this share offer, which really demonstrates people’s enthusiasm for the project and support for a better energy system, one based on renewables that benefits communities.

We want to make Oxfordshire an example for the world. To show how the right investment, used in the right way, can help meet our energy needs in a way that’s good for people, and good for the planet. This is another step to making that a reality."

DR BARBARA HAMMOND, CEO AT LOW CARBON HUB

"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."

CHRIS CULLEN, RELATIONSHIP MANAGER AT TRIODOS BANK UK

We are delighted to report that we signed the construction contract for Ray Valley Solar ground mount solar park last month, and the project is due to be completed in September 2021.

Ray Valley Solar will generate over 18GWh of clean electricity each year, enough to power over 6,000 homes.

Ray Valley Solar

Ray Valley Solar will be a new solar park located near Bicester. Planning permission has been secured for the 95-acre site and will comprise 35,900 solar panels with battery storage also approved. Engie Fabricom will carry out the project build, and Low Carbon Limited will manage it.

Ray Valley Solar will:

The panels used at Ray Valley Solar will be bi-facial panels, which means that they have clear glass on both the sky-facing and ground-facing sides. This is a relatively new technology, enabling the panels to capture some of the reflected light that bounces up off the grass below whilst the project is in operation. Over the course of a year, this increases generation by 25% over a standard panel.

Constructing a solar park is of course a significant intervention to a landscape. Although the site is between a Ministry of Defence site and another solar park, we want to ensure that Ray Valley is an exemplar of how a solar park can be realised in this kind of context. That is also what our stakeholders told us. All 80 respondents to a survey we put out about approaching ground mount solar indicated very reassuring and overwhelmingly positive support. Many also wanted to know what exemplar land and biodiversity management around a solar park could and should look like.

Currently, the site is a large, flat open field punctuated only by a few hedges, one or two ditches and grazing sheep at times. We have a partnership with the landowner, who will continue to graze the area once construction is complete. There is 8m of space between each of the panels allowing access to open grass for sheep. The ground is about 1m from the bottom of the panels, allowing plenty of space for sheep to walk under the panels to have uninterrupted grazing across the site.

A detailed landscaping strategy is in development to ensure we are doing the utmost to maximise biodiversity in the area. We are also exploring opportunities to work with the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT).

We are really pleased to announce that we have now met our target of raising £3 million of new investment into the Community Energy Fund. Thank you so much to everyone who has invested, putting their money to work tackling climate change.

We have been absolutely blown away by the level of support this share offer has received. The share offer re-opened in November 2020 and we had to increase our target twice in order to meet unprecedented levels of early investment. And even now we have reached our target early, before the official deadline of 31 March 2021.

We apologise for any disappointment for those who haven’t been able to invest this time. However, we do anticipate opening the Fund each year for new investment. To be the first to hear when we do reopen, please sign up to our mailing list.

What will this money be used for?

As laid out in our share offer document, we set a £3 million investment target for 2021 to develop renewable energy projects in Oxfordshire.

In particular, this investment will be used to:

Build Ray Valley Solar, a 19MW ground mount solar park, situated near Bicester. This will be the largest community-owned ground mount solar park in the UK.

Develop a pipeline of rooftop solar PV projects

RAY VALLEY SOLAR

In order to meet our carbon reduction targets, we need significantly more renewable energy generation. In Oxfordshire, this means the development of ground mount solar projects.

Ray Valley Solar will be the Low Carbon Hub’s first ground mount solar project and will result in a five-fold increase in our annual green electricity generation. Situated in Arncott, three miles south east of Bicester, the site neighbours an MOD logistics site, HM Bullingdon prison and two existing solar parks.

Ray Valley Solar will:

ROOFTOP SOLAR PV

The Low Carbon Hub owns and manages over 40 renewable energy installations across Oxfordshire. We will use this funding to continue to develop a pipeline of rooftop solar PV projects.

About the Community Energy Fund

We launched the Community Energy Fund in 2018 as a way of allowing investors to invest in a portfolio of projects that will change over time but will always support our mission to accelerate the transition to a zero carbon energy system.

With this latest round of investment included, the Community Energy Fund now has over £6 million of investment from over 1,700 investors.

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported us and helped make this possible!