‘A share in the delight’: the people investing in the UK’s first community-owned solar battery

Oxfordshire’s Ray Valley Solar already generates clean energy for 7,000 homes, and is now crowdfunding storage to marry daylight with evening demand Tucked away among hedgerows on a large field between a motorway and the River Ray, one of the UK’s largest community-owned solar parks is hard to spot from the surrounding country lanes. But the nearly 36,000 solar panels installed on the site are literally a shining example of what can be achieved when a renewable energy project is co-owned by local people. Ray Valley Solar, south of Bicester in Oxfordshire, generates enough clean electricity to power about 7,000 homes for a year, and uses its profits to provide grants to community initiatives that help reduce carbon emissions and make homes, schools and businesses across Oxfordshire more energy efficient. Now, plans to install battery storage at the site with investment from members of the public – the first community-owned battery at a renewable energy project in the UK – will, it is hoped, give the project a big boost. On very sunny days, Ray Valley Solar – which uses efficient double-sided solar panels that can capture sunlight that bounces back from the ground at the re