‘Off-grid’ homes harness river to power whole village

A proposed Bill is raising communities’ hopes of being able to live off their own clean energy supplies

WHEN a small community just west of Oxford watched as the Thames destroyed their homes in a dramatic flood, they realised just how powerful the river was.

But now the people of have harnessed that force and protected their homes by using their little stretch of the river for hydroelectric renewable energy. The village is hoping to become the first in Britain to go truly “off-grid” under plans to allow local people to buy renewable energy which is generated nearby, even by neighbours.

At the moment, when a community buys a group of solar panels, or starts a hydroelectric dam, they are required to sell the energy back to the national grid.

Under a proposed Local Energy Bill, neighbourhoods could club together to become their own energy suppliers, breaking free from the big utility companies and creating green, cheap energy.

Ministers heartily support the plans, with one telling The Sunday Telegraph: “These ideas bring out the Conservative in me. The Government should send the signal, create incentives and remove red tape – this then lets 1,000 flowers bloom.”

It is understood Alok Sharma, president of the global climate conference COP26, due to be held in Glasgow later this year, is supportive of the plans as an incentive to quickly reduce Britain’s carbon footprint using community spirit.

The Osney Lock project currently produces enough electricity to power 55 houses a year, and this number could increase. Saskya Huggins from Low Carbon Hub, who works on the project, said: “From our perspective the Bill is important on two levels – our role in community energy is that if we were able to sell the power locally we would really increase community participation in our project.

“The frustration is, we cannot sell the thing we make back to the local community. People who want to support us can’t directly buy energy off us.”

That part of the river has been used to power Oxford for centuries, with the city’s first watermills stationed there. Locals wild swim and boat near the dam, and hope it can soon provide clean energy that could be connected straight to their homes.

Welsh organisers also hope to use the mountains of Snowdonia to power local towns and villages without relying on the grid. Gareth Harrison runs a network of hydro dams and solar panels around the mountain range. He told The Sunday Telegraph: “We have nearly 0.5 MW of generating capacity, and want to be able to sell this electricity directly to consumers. As community-focused organisations, all of our profits are reinvested back into community projects – we’ve just helped set up new charities that will distribute these funds.

Police stations are also trying to help their communities generate local energy. Officers at South Yorkshire Police got solar panels installed on the roof of their station. Luke Wilson, director of Sheffield Renewables, has been working with them on the project.

He said: “The Local Electricity Bill would give small community electricity generators like ourselves the right to become local suppliers and sell our energy directly to local people.”