Jane Buekett

Bart Hawkes is 12 years old and fascinated by engineering. Bart was in Oxford with his parents and brother in August and asked if he could have a tour of Osney Lock Hydro. We were delighted to show him around.  Bart makes videos about historical and recent pieces of engineering. The Hawkes family website describes…

Osney Lock Hydro participated in Oxford Open Doors again this year. WOCoRe volunteers were on site on the afternoon of 13 September. We welcomed 81 visitors despite the rainy weather.

Over the summer we have had an elephant hawkmoth and two poplar hawkmoths in our light trap at Osney Lock Hydro. This is the first time we’ve captured hawkmoths at the hydro. They are big, spectacular moths and wonderful to see up close. In August we also had a tree-lichen beauty in the trap. This…

A group from Wycombe Labour Party visited Osney Lock Hydro on Saturday 22 August. The group was walking part of the Thames path and asked to be shown around the hydro site. WOCoRe director Simon Collings met them and explained the history of the hydro, and the economics around operating the site. High Wycombe has…

We were pleased to host a visit to the hydro by students and staff from Newton College in Hong Kong, on Saturday 8 August. The 19 students were in Oxford to learn about renewable energy. This engaged and attentive group asked some interesting questions. The visit was hosted by WOCoRe directors Barbara Hammond and Simon Collings. The…

A local flood-resilience project supported by WOCoRe has won an award for innovation. Project Groundwater’s Innovation Fund Projects have won the Community Action Award at the Flood & Coast Excellence Awards 2026 – a recognition of the positive impact these community-led projects are making. The four winners include South Oxford Flood Action Group (SOFLAG) whose…

It is with huge sadness that we have to communicate the death of our wonderful colleague, Professor Malcolm McCulloch. Malcolm came to Oxford from Witwatersrand University in South Africa in 1993. He created the Energy and Power Research Group here and did some amazing and highly technical innovation work – he was one whose brain…

The financial year just ended (31 March 2026) proved a challenging one for hydro generation. The dry spring of 2025 meant we stopped generating on 26 April and the hydro did not come back on until 11 November. High river levels during the winter also led to periods of low or no generation in December…

Community Energy England has called on the government to speed up implementation of the increased support for community energy announced recently in the government’s Local Power Plan.  An open letter, signed by 250 community energy organisations was handed in at Parliament on 4 March. A light installation spelling UP THE ENERGY, worn by 11 people,…

Our solar assets performed well over the first six months of this financial year owing to the prolonged sunny weather. Overall, we generated 1,907 kWh more from our solar arrays at The King’s Centre, Aldi and Matthew Arnold School than we did in the same period in 2024. This was despite the Science Block re-roofing…

We’ve embarked on a journey at Osney Lock Hydro this year discovering some of the moths present at the site. Most moths fly at night, so we use a light trap to attract and capture them. The moths are unharmed by this and are released after recording. We checked for moths twice last year and…