Oxford City Council works through and invests the in Low Carbon Hub, a social enterprise that turns rooftops and rivers in Oxford into power stations. The Hub is developing community-led energy, raising money to build projects through community share offers and reinvesting 100% of any surplus revenue in scaling up existing renewable energy generating and scaling down energy demand.
Each year, Oxfordshire spends about £1.5 billion on energy and we want to ensure that money doesn’t exit the local economy to the big energy companies that are now mainly owned by foreign companies. With the Hub, we work to retain money locally, decentralise ownership of energy, make that energy cleaner, and advance our measures against climate breakdown in line with our cooperative and community valued. Over the years, the council has backed the Hub with nearly £6m, and the payback is worth it.
