News

Record rainfall in September led to high river flows which prevented us from generating for much of October (see earlier post). We came back online on 25 October and have been running at close to full capacity since 1 November. In mid-November we passed a generation milestone: 1.5 million kWh produced since we started in…

Over the summer we started developing the hydro site as a wildlife garden. Visitors will have noticed the flowers in the border just inside the gate. We also stopped cutting the lawn to let the grass and other plants there flower and seed. Recently we cleared a huge pile of hedge trimmings which had built…

We were excited to start generating again on 23 September, but the record-breaking rainfall on that day meant we had to shut down again soon after.

With recent heavy rainfall the hydro has started this season's generation.

We welcomed over 100 visitors to the hydro on Sunday 15 September as part of Oxford Open Doors.

Kerry McCarthy, Minister for Climate in the new government, came to Osney Lock Hydro on 18 July as part of a visit to Low Carbon Hub. The minister wanted to learn how LCH has worked with the local community on innovative projects to accelerate the transition to net zero. As well as seeing the hydro,…

A group of community-share practitioners visited the hydro on 2 July. The practitioners come from across the UK. They meet regularly to share knowledge and experience and support each other to grow and innovate in the community-shares market.  The group was in Oxford on a visit organised by Co-operatives UK to hear more about the…

Volunteer moth recorders Hugo and Frankie Crombie and Simon Collings set up a light trap at the hydro on 29 June. They were back on site at 5 the next morning to see what they had caught. The star find was a buff-tip moth that resembles a piece of twig when at rest. Other moth…

The hydro was open on Saturday 15 June as part of Osney Open Gardens, allowing visitors to see what we do. We had 114 visitors in 2 hours, a lovely mix of Osney Island residents and people passing by on the towpath. Two of our shareholders from London who had never before been inside the…

A delegation from Danish local government visited the hydro at the end of May. Mai Strunge Jarvis worked on environmental sustainability for Oxford City Council before becoming Head of Climate and Environment for Haderslev municipality in Denmark. She brought the Technical and Climate Committee from the local authority, plus some officers, to see the hydro,…

In May the hydro had a visit from Australian Madie Sturgess who was in Britain researching community energy projects. Madie works with Australian First Nations communities that have spent years fighting against exploitation of the land by industries like mining and fracking. They want to work together for something positive and community energy gives them…

Volunteers and directors have been busy sprucing up the hydro ready for Osney Open Gardens on 15 June.