A consultation on private, for-profit schemes is being run jointly by Oxfordshire County Council, Cherwell District Council, Oxford City Council, South Oxfordshire District Council, Vale of White Horse District Council and West Oxfordshire District Council and runs from 12 May - 14 June 2026.

People can read the consultation documents and complete the questionnaire through the online consultation portal Let’s Talk Oxfordshire.

Councillor Gareth Epps, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Place, Environment and Climate Action, said: “Oxfordshire has huge potential to play a significant role in the move towards cleaner, more secure energy. But it is also important that our communities have a voice in how the benefits of that transition are shaped and shared.

“This consultation is about listening early. We want as many people as possible to tell us what a fair and practical approach should look like.”

Across Oxfordshire, more renewable energy and battery storage projects are expected to come forward over the coming years as part of the transition to a cleaner, more secure energy system.

Oxfordshire’s councils want to make sure that where communities host large-scale low-carbon energy infrastructure – such as ground mount solar, batteries or wind – there is a clearer, fairer and more consistent way to discuss long-term local benefits.

The proposed interim policy does not determine how much renewable energy is built in Oxfordshire. Planning decisions are made entirely on their own merits by local planning authorities and the government.

The proposed interim policy is attempting to ensure that where projects are approved, communities have an opportunity to get a fair share of negotiated benefits. The policy will provide a shared framework for how councils, communities and developers can discuss voluntary community benefits and shared ownership separately from planning decisions.

Community benefit contributions are payments or other forms of support offered by developers to communities hosting low-carbon energy infrastructure to secure local value from hosting. These contributions can support local priorities such as community facilities, nature recovery, energy efficiency, skills, fuel poverty reduction, or other projects identified by communities.

Community shared ownership is where communities may have the opportunity to take a financial stake in a renewable energy project, allowing more of the value created by clean energy infrastructure to be retained locally.

The consultation is open to everyone, including residents, parish and town councils, community organisations, energy developers, landowners, local businesses, investors, infrastructure providers and other interested stakeholders.

Feedback received through the consultation will be used to inform the final version of the interim policy before it is considered by each council throughout the summer.

Sign up to hear from us and receive the latest news and updates in our fortnightly newsletter, Your Oxfordshire.

A trial scheme to make it more affordable for Oxfordshire residents to install solar panels and battery storage has hit the century mark.

Last month, Oxfordshire County Council, and its partners SMS and Metis carried out their hundredth installation as part of their Energy Saver App project, backed by government funding.

All the householders involved had registered their interest in the solar trial after downloading the energy saver app, which was launched a year ago.

Councillor Judy Roberts, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Place, Environment and Climate Action, said: “These installations are now generating significant clean electricity for Oxfordshire.

“They are helping to provide flexibility, enabling our residents to benefit from cheaper tariffs. They have created savings of around £300 a year for the 100 households who have taken part.”

Through the scheme, householders pay £40 a month for the equipment, rather than having to pay thousands of pounds up front.

Barbara and John Hall, from Upper Tadmarton, near Banbury, were among the first residents to have solar panels and a battery installed under the trial in December.

Mrs Hall said: “This scheme is just brilliant because you're not having to pay out a big lump sum but you're getting all the benefits.”

The project is part of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s alternative energy markets innovation programme and backed by funding from the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP).

NZIP is a £1 billion fund for low carbon technologies and systems and aims to lower the costs of decarbonisation, helping enable the UK to end its contribution to climate change.

Tom Woolley, SMS and Metis’s Product and Strategy Director, said: “It’s been such a fantastic partnership and to hit 100 installations is a good point to reflect on the progress.

“There are over 100 more customers contracted and excited about their installations, so we are not slowing down. Together, with our partnership with Oxfordshire County Council, we’re making the energy transition as accessible as getting a mobile phone, and that’s something to be very proud of.”

People can still register their interest in the scheme through the energy saver app, which has so far been downloaded by 9,000 people. Even if they are not chosen for the trial, users can still expect to cut their gas and electricity consumption by at least eight per cent through the energy insights offered by the app.

As well as the solar trial, the council and its partners plan to trial air source heat pump installations for a select number of properties in the future.

Click Sign up to hear from us and receive the latest news and updates in our fortnightly newsletter, Your Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford City Council and West Oxfordshire, Cherwell, South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils have joined together, under the Future Oxfordshire Partnership, to deliver pioneering local area energy plans (LAEPs) for Oxfordshire, to address climate change and secure cleaner, more affordable energy for the county.

The plans will provide clear, strategic, and community-focused actions for transforming the way local energy such as wind and solar is generated, used, and managed, supporting both local and national climate goals.

They will assess how building improvement measures such as insulation and low-carbon heating can reduce reliance upon fossil fuels. At the same time, they will improve the quality of information necessary to plan and deliver the energy we will need from the electricity grid, ensuring homes and businesses can benefit from cleaner, more reliable power in the years to come.

To develop the plans, the authorities will work with local communities and businesses to identify projects that will help manage the transition to cleaner energy. The plans will identify specific actions for each district, together with more strategic projects to be delivered at the county level.

Councillor Liz Leffman, Chair of the Future Oxfordshire Partnership and Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, said: “It doesn’t make sense to spend energy, and therefore money, transmitting electricity made by burning gas through wires and pylons over miles and miles to people in Shrivenham, for example, when they could use the cheap energy created at a nearby windfarm or excess electricity made on a neighbour’s roof. This is why we need a local area energy plan.

“This project is a fantastic example of what can be achieved when we work together to tackle challenges. The six councils of Oxfordshire are joining forces and working with the community to make a plan for a greener, fairer energy system.”

The LAEPs will also provide more information to energy network providers, enabling them to plan and invest in necessary electricity grid upgrades ahead of demand. This is key to ensuring that Oxfordshire has the energy capacity to meet its future needs, powering homes, businesses, and delivering locally generated renewable energy.

Ove Arup & Partners have been appointed as lead consultants in the development of the LAEPs. These plans will play a critical role in shaping a sustainable future for Oxfordshire, demonstrating how local collaboration can make a significant impact in addressing global challenges.

Stuart Hallett, from Arup, said: “With a renewed focus on transitioning the UK’s energy system to net zero, supported through new functions such as the Regional Energy Strategic Planner (RESP) and access to investment vehicles targeted at decarbonisation interventions, such as Great British Energy and the National Wealth Fund, it is vital that regional scale LAEPs are developed and shaped to align with these strategic mechanisms as well as enabling local scale decarbonisation to happen.

“As advocates of a whole-system approach to energy planning at this scale, we are delighted to be working on this industry leading work, supported by our partners Global City Futures and Oxford Brookes University, to deliver a stakeholder led plan, placing people, business and communities at the heart of a cost effective and just transition, whilst enabling network infrastructure investment to be planned effectively.”

Click Sign up to hear from us and receive the latest news and updates in our fortnightly newsletter, Your Oxfordshire.

The council won the award for the best climate action and decarbonisation initiative at the recent Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) Service Awards 2023.

It was recognised for its energy insights tool and energy flexibility trials, successfully demonstrating the crucial role local authorities can play in moving away from the use of polluting fossil fuels. The work formed part of the Local Energy Oxfordshire scheme – also known as Project LEO.

Project LEO, which has been trialled over a four-year period, is an ambitious, wide reaching, collaborative energy demonstrator scheme. It has provided a blueprint for a greener, more flexible and fairer electricity system for the UK in the future.

The council led the development of a strategic energy mapping platform to support local area energy planning and provided assets, including buildings, to participate in the flexibility trials. 

Project Lead Inga Doherty, Oxfordshire County Council’s Climate Policy and Programme Team Leader, said: “We were delighted to pick up the APSE award for best climate action and decarbonisation initiative. The energy mapping platform is already contributing to decarbonisation work across the county and will be used to develop a robust, well informed, local energy plan for Oxfordshire.

“We also demonstrated how council assets can contribute to a transition to a net zero energy system. It’s fantastic to lead on initiatives that help us move over to cleaner energy that bit sooner and to have our work recognised by APSE.”

Councillor Pete Sudbury, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment, said: “Project LEO is a big jump towards the energy system of the future, and it is really gratifying that our contribution to it has gained national recognition. This ground-breaking work in Oxfordshire has documented the path to a national system that we need by the early 2030s.”

The Local Area Energy Planner Plus (LAEP+) energy mapping platform, developed with commercial partner Advanced Infrastructure Technology Ltd and tested by Oxfordshire’s city and district councils, provides a spatial picture of how and where energy is used across the county and informs where changes are needed to enable the transition to net zero.

A wealth of data was provided through a successful collaboration with Energy Systems Catapult – a not for profit centre of excellence that bridges the gap between industry, government, academia and research.

It has already been used to inform the rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and identify areas suitable for inclusion in retrofit programmes to make buildings more energy efficient.

It will be key to developing a local area energy plan that identifies opportunities to reduce demand, maximise the use of the county’s existing energy infrastructure and scale up renewable generation.

Lily Cairns Haylor, Head of Product and Co-founder at Advanced Infrastructure said: “In transitioning to a net zero energy system, the LEO LAEP+ energy insights tool has demonstrated its remarkable value in saving time and resources while pinpointing optimal locations and timing for the deployment of low-carbon technologies, including EV charge points.  We are extremely proud to have partnered with Oxfordshire County Council on Project LEO in our shared mission to decarbonise the local area.”

Mo Baines, APSE Chief Executive, said: “We received over 300 submissions for the awards this year, with each one demonstrating a clear commitment to the goals of continuous improvement and the delivery of excellence in public services.

"On behalf of everyone at APSE, I would like to congratulate each one of our incredible finalists – you are a credit to the communities you serve.”

Click Sign up to hear from us and receive the latest news and updates in our fortnightly newsletter, Your Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire County Council is strongly urging the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) to withdraw its proposals to significantly cut planned investment and modernisation of energy infrastructure that will help people and organisations make the transition to greener energy.

The UK’s electricity system is set up in three parts: the generators, the distribution grids (which are split between national and local), and the end supply companies – to whom people pay their bills. Ofgem is conducting a consultation relating to the local distribution grid companies.

The local electricity grid companies, known as district network operators (DNOs), are in a monopoly position and, as a result, Ofgem approves their business plans for every charging period. With the next period (2023 - 28) Ofgem has released a consultation on what it is proposing to change to those draft business plans being submitted. They include short-term cuts in previously proposed levels of investment, which could lead to increased costs to the consumer in the long-term.

Three DNOs cover Oxfordshire: Western Power Distribution, which covers about 10 per cent of the county to the north around Banbury; UK power networks, which covers the areas around Thame and Chinnor; and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, which covers the rest of Oxfordshire.

Councillor Pete Sudbury, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment, said: “We condemn the time and effort spent on a consultation that will have negligible impact upon bill payers, for whom the problem is in the order of thousands of pounds, while significantly disabling urgent and necessary modernisation.

“In light of the accelerating impacts of climate change and the clear and stark warnings from every reputable scientific body regarding the need to accelerate the energy transition, we must condemn, as reckless and foolish, any proposals that wilfully downgrade and slow that transition.

“We believe it is clear that cutting already inadequate investment in grid capacity to support future electrification of heat, transport, housing and employment growth will significantly impact Oxfordshire economically, environmentally and socially.

“No long-term cost impact assessment has been completed for this important decision. We estimate that the level of cost savings for householders will be minimal, around £10 per year, while the longer-term impacts will have a greater cost, especially to those on lower incomes. The October fuel cap will still be a staggering £3,549 per year.

“We have already seen several new commercial and residential developments experiencing prohibitively costly grid connection offers and delays. The work being delivered under the groundbreaking innovation project Local Energy Oxfordshire indicates the potential opportunities for flexible services and future needs of the transition from DNOs to district network service providers.

“With several electric vehicle companies, charging companies and supply chain organisations based within Oxfordshire, there is a direct impact upon the local economy from the proposals to provide a reduced number of EV connections.

“The Oxford Low Carbon Economy report estimated that seven per cent of the local economy was based upon the low and zero carbon industry, with the potential to add £1.35 billion to the local economy and an additional 11,000 jobs by 2030, with the correct policies. The proposed restrictions will have an ever further and growing constraining impact on the local economy and jobs.”

Oxfordshire County Council declared a climate emergency in 2019, as did the UK government. Working with other local organisations, the county council developed the Oxfordshire Energy Strategy and Pathways to a Zero Carbon Oxfordshire reports. Both allow a target of meeting net zero for the county by 2050 or earlier.

In its response to the Ofgem consultation, the county council has said it can find no evidence of any detailed assessment in which Ofgem has taken these factors into consideration when making its draft determination. The council considers that Ofgem would be failing to meet its duties and responsibilities if the proposal were approved given they include “to deliver net zero” and “ensuring a fair treatment for all”.

Councillor Sudbury added: “Electric vehicle uptake in the county is already well ahead of other areas (approximately 40 per cent share of new vehicle registrations in June 22, the highest rate in the UK) and we expect installation of heat pumps to increase significantly in the next five years. DNOs have regularly indicated the challenge for large scale uptake of EVs and heat pumps on low voltage networks, with several innovation challenges looking to directly address these areas.

“Climate impacts are already imposing very significant global and local costs. The requirement to decarbonise rapidly in this decade should be of the highest possible priority, to avoid much greater future costs and wider threats to our health, economic and social wellbeing.

“We have been clear to Ofgem that we think it is failing to meet its duties by making these proposals and we urge them to alter their plans.”

Click Sign up to hear from us and receive the latest news and updates thanks to our fortnightly newsletter, Your Oxfordshire.

Meeting this commitment will require a fundamental change in how we generate electricity, heat our homes, and power our journeys. This shift from huge continuously operating power stations to widely distributed variable sources of power alongside battery and other storage is the most profound transformation of the energy system since the National Grid.

It needs a whole new ‘smart grid’ infrastructure, balancing and shifting supply and demand to keep them matched on both short and long timescales, with EVs and heat pumps expected to double or treble electricity demand in a very short space of time.

Leading the way on that is Local Energy Oxfordshire (Project LEO), which is one of the UK’s most ambitious, wide-ranging and innovative renewable energy trials.

Oxfordshire County Council is involved in the project alongside project lead Scottish and Southern Electricity Network (SSEN), social enterprise Low Carbon Hub, the University of Oxford, Oxford City Council, Oxford Brookes University, and commercial partners Piclo, Nuvve, EDF R&D and Origami Energy. The project is part funded by Innovate UK.

Oxfordshire County Council’s central role is to develop a new energy mapping and planning tool, in collaboration with Oxford Brookes University. Having been developed within LEO, the mapping tool will support strategic planning for the transition to net zero local energy systems, in Oxfordshire and across the UK. The council’s new administration has pledged to make putting action to tackle climate change at the heart of all of its work.

Councillor Pete Sudbury, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change Delivery and Environment, said: “This is a brilliant project. Oxfordshire is leading the way to a future energy system the whole UK will need by the early 2030s. It is inspiring to see so many community groups, organisations and businesses come together to work on these trials, laying the foundations for an electricity system delivering reliable, cheap renewable power, 24/7.”

On Tuesday 19 October, a fully electric double-decker bus, bound for the COP26 summit in Glasgow, pulled into Oxford city centre on the first stop of SSEN’s ‘Road to Renewables' nationwide tour to showcase some of the most innovative clean energy projects across the UK. The bus was welcomed by project representatives including the Oxford Bus Company, which took part in the first Project LEO trial involving battery storage at its Cowley depot.

Phil Southall, managing director of Oxford Bus Company, said: “Oxford is world famous for its innovation and the city is currently working really hard to help achieve net zero, not just for our own city but also to help inform similar efforts worldwide. We are really proud to have played a part in Project LEO and are focused on supporting the city in its ambitious decarbonisation plans.”

Critical to the success of Project LEO is the involvement of local communities in a series of Smart and Fair Neighbourhood (SFN) trials. Project leaders are working with five communities to explore how smart technology and new commercial models can create opportunities for a local energy marketplace in a fair and equitable way.

The five communities are:

• Eynsham Smart and Fair Futures SFN, which is developing a ‘Zero Carbon Energy Action Plan’ for the Eynsham primary substation area plus a plan for its long-term governance.
• Deddington and Duns Tew SFN which is looking at how the installation of heat pumps and smart monitoring can help decarbonise rural, off-gas communities and how energy efficiency measures can be installed in households under planning constraints.
• Osney Island SFN in Oxford, which is looking at how densely populated areas can support EV ownership and use, including for people who don't have their own EV.
• Rose Hill SFN in Oxford, which is looking at how a largely residential community with several energy assets, including battery storage, can change energy use patterns, to balance the grid locally and benefit the local community.
• Westmill SFN, near Watchfield, which is looking at how the existing solar and onshore wind farms could link with battery storage to participate in local flexibility markets.

The two-year trials involve the setting up and testing of local, low carbon energy supplies using market mechanisms and smart technology, testing technical and commercial innovation. Organisers want to learn what sorts of benefits or returns – financial or otherwise – could motivate people to participate in the new energy system.

The ultimate aim is to identify options that are technically and commercially viable as well as desirable, as these will be crucial for it to become self-sustaining.

Melanie Bryce, SSEN’s Oxfordshire programme director, said: “Project LEO has a key role in helping us understand how smart local energy systems and renewable generation can be used to support the UK’s carbon zero aspirations. Our trials in Oxfordshire are helping us to turn these ambitions into actions.”

More information is available on the Project LEO website.

Click Sign up to hear from us and receive the latest news and updates thanks to our fortnightly newsletter, Your Oxfordshire.

Waste officers at Oxfordshire County Council are highlighting the annual spike in food waste in the hope of encouraging residents to reduce the amount of uneaten food that is thrown away.

However, we do understand that however much families love leftovers, some food waste is inevitable and are asking residents to use the food waste recycling system in their district. Throwing away food waste in the general bin increases the costs of disposal by the county council; Recycling food costs around half as much as putting it in the general waste bin. The waste food we recycle in Oxfordshire is collected to generate renewable electricity and produces a fertiliser that is spread on local fields.

Rachel Burns, Waste Strategy Manager at Oxfordshire County Council said:

“For many people Christmas is about spending time with family and friends over a good feast and sometimes there is food waste. Before the festive season gets going, we are asking people to consider if they might be over-ordering. The average household throws away around £70/month of food, and more over Christmas; this equates to 74 million mince pies or five million Christmas puddings across the country. Each household in Oxfordshire throws away the equivalent weight of 1100 mince pies in waste food over the season.

Henry Owen, Lead Coordinator of the Replenish Project, a county council-funded scheme using volunteers to help residents reduce their food waste added: “Turkey, bread sauce and sprouts are amongst the top five wasted foods at Christmas time. There will always be leftovers and there are some great recipes on Love Food Hate Waste website to help you use them up. Many leftovers can be safely frozen and eaten another day.”

“Oxfordshire’s food banks and community fridges will welcome surplus seasonal goods, tins, packets and long dated items in January when the need is great. Reducing food waste is one of the easiest things we can do to help the environment.”

Waste and recycling officers believe that with careful planning, food waste at Christmas and year-round can be significantly reduced. Love Food Hate Waste is a national website with a portion control calculator or you can download the free app.

According to Love Food Hate Waste, 86 million chickens or turkeys are thrown away uneaten in Britain every year. Its website also has a range of top tips on how to make the most of leftovers and also some excellent leftover recipes.

Rachel added:

“Oxfordshire is already one of the best recycling areas in the country and more and more people tell us they are planning to have a ‘greener’ Christmas this year. We hope these tips will be useful and help to reduce the huge amount of extra waste generated during the festive period. Reducing how much we throw away and recycling food that can’t be eaten are some of the easiest things we can all do to help the environment.

And remember - if your recycling bin is struggling to cope with all the extra cardboard, plastic and paper, put any that can’t fit into the bin in a clear plastic sack or cardboard box. Place it next to your bin on collection day.”

The Oxfordshire Household Waste Recycling Centres will close at 3pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and be closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Otherwise they will be open as normal from 8am-5pm.

For further information about recycling over the festive period, visit the website

www.oxfordshirerecycles.org.uk/christmas

For more information on Oxfordshire’s Replenish Community Action Group:

https://cagoxfordshire.org.uk/replenish/

As the largest council in Oxfordshire, the county council has already taken a strong lead and committed to being carbon neutral by 2030. Achieving that aim will benefit the county’s thriving communities and mean radically changing the way some things are done.

Along with the commitment to being carbon neutral the county council has also signalled its dedication through high-profile sustainable energy projects like Local Energy Oxfordshire, the V2GO charging initiative as well as seeking to reduce the number of miles its staff travel for things like meetings by encouraging flexible working and greater use of virtual meeting technology.

Moving to an electric-powered fleet of vehicles is seen as a key step and the Fire and Rescue Service is positively charged about its new Renault Zoe and Kangoo vans – all of which produce absolutely no exhaust emissions and are cheaper to run.

Because of this the new fleet, which is the first part of a strategy that will see the council replacing as much of its vehicles fleet with zero exhaust emission alternatives as possible, is already starting to make a contribution to improving air quality.

The vehicles can travel up to 160 miles on a single charge and will be used by Fire Safety Officers, as pool cars and as fire station vans and can be charged at any of the fire stations.

The county council is in the process of replacing its general pool cars with rechargeable models, with three already in use.

Banishing pollutants from our communities

Grahame Mitchell, Assistant Chief Fire Officer, explained: “Transport can make a major contribution to air quality and the environment. Making positive changes like switching to electric vehicles is just one way in which key pollutants can be banished from our roads and communities.

“The performance of electric vehicles has come on immensely in recent years and the ones that we have chosen meet our needs very well. They will be put through their paces by our staff and their experiences will help us when we replace more of our fleet.

“Although the initial costs of electric vehicles are higher than conventional vehicles the much lower servicing and running costs soon re-coupe this difference and providing the council with both a clean and cost effective transport.”

Cheaper and greener to get around

While the initial upfront purchase price of an electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle can be higher, this is offset by lower running costs over the lifetime of the vehicle. Plug-in cars offer a number of potential savings compared to conventional vehicles including:

A full charge in a pure electric vehicle will give a typical range of 100 miles and will cost £2 to £4. Driving 100 miles in a petrol or diesel car will cost around £13 to £16 in fuel, which is around four times the cost of the electric car.

There are greater savings to be had if owners can access off-peak overnight electricity tariffs.

There are fewer mechanical components in an electric vehicle when compared with conventional vehicles, which often results in lower servicing and maintenance costs.

Sustainable transport and sustainable energy

Oxfordshire County Council is also amongst the organisations leading the way to a new smart, local, sustainable energy system as part of the Local Energy Oxfordshire (LEO) consortium.

Project LEO, which recently kicked off following the award of more than £40m in funding - will show how an energy system of the future can support more local renewable energy generation, charging for electric cars and storage by creating the systems to balance supply and demand in Oxfordshire.

The project will demonstrate the potential for individuals and communities to become active participants in the energy systems of the future. It will enable the buying and selling of energy between local communities, businesses and residents. Over 90 local energy projects – many owned and invested in by communities in Oxfordshire – will be integrated into the LEO systems

Zero-emission plan for transport in Oxford

Oxfordshire County Council jointly with Oxford City Council published updated proposals for a Zero Emission Zone (ZEZ) in Oxford centre, setting a journey to zero transport emissions in the city by 2035.

From 2020 onwards, a ZEZ with apply to some vehicles and journey types, with restrictions increased gradually to all vehicles in the following years to create a largely transport emissions-free city centre. The aim of the ZEZ is to tackle Oxford’s toxic air pollution and protect the health of everyone who lives in, works in and visits the city.

It is also expected that the ZEZ will improve air pollution levels across Oxfordshire because the buses and taxis that serve Oxford also serve towns and villages across the county.

Could electric vehicles be right for you?

Some EV manufacturers will install a homecharge unit free of charge when you purchase a vehicle.

The government also offers a grant of up to £500 towards installing home charging. Most people will prefer to charge at home but for charging on the go see Zap Map (https://www.zap-map.com/)

The council realises that not everyone has access to off-street parking and is therefore partnering with Oxford City Council to trial a variety of solutions for on street charging. For all sorts of information about charging, range and the benefits of EV visit www.goultralow.com