IN Brief:
- Low Carbon Hub is raising investment for a 3 MW/12 MWh battery at Ray Valley Solar Park, described as the UK’s first community-owned, co-located solar battery project.
- The four-hour lithium-ion system is designed to capture surplus daytime solar generation, reduce curtailment, and release electricity during higher-value evening demand periods.
- The project lands as the UK’s Local Power Plan pushes community and local energy further up the policy agenda, with more emphasis on ownership, flexibility, and local reinvestment.
Low Carbon Hub has opened investment for a 3 MW/12 MWh battery energy storage project at Ray Valley Solar Park in Oxfordshire, in what the social enterprise describes as the UK’s first community-owned, co-located solar battery installation. The four-hour lithium-ion system will sit alongside Ray Valley Solar, a 19 MW community-owned solar park near Bicester that has been operating since 2022.
The technical case centres on timing and network flexibility. On strong solar days, Ray Valley can produce more electricity than can be exported at that moment, which means clean generation is curtailed or sold when prices are weaker. Adding storage allows that surplus to be captured and moved into evening demand periods, while also opening access to flexibility markets that reward assets able to shift or balance power when the local system needs it most.
Low Carbon Hub says the battery will be able to store enough electricity to supply roughly 1,100 homes for up to four hours at peak demand. The organisation expects the storage system to increase the project’s lifetime surplus for community benefit by more than £1 million, on top of an existing forecast of around £13 million over Ray Valley’s operating life.
The project is also closely aligned with the policy direction now emerging around local energy ownership. Great British Energy and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero published the Local Power Plan in February, setting out up to £1 billion of support for local and community-owned clean energy projects across the UK. A co-located battery backed by community capital fits directly into that model by linking renewable generation, grid flexibility, and local reinvestment.
Investment in Low Carbon Hub’s Community Energy Fund is open from £100, with a 5% target interest rate and a current share offer deadline of 26 June 2026. More information about the Ray Valley battery project is available here, and details of the wider Community Energy Fund are available here.
