Community energy group hopes for local electricity trading as part of its ‘better system’ of supply and ownership

In the shadow of the Didcot power station in Oxfordshire, a small group of people sat around a kitchen table and thought “let’s replace it” with green community energy.

That was in 2011. Now, in 2024, that little group has become the Low Carbon Hub with 1,773 members and 55 renewable energy installations around Oxford, including two hydroelectric dams on the River Thames. Meanwhile, the Didcot power station is half-demolished, no longer burning coal or belching greenhouse gases into the air.