News

A record breaking quarter has brought our total generation for the 2016-17 financial year to 225,137 kWh – or 125% of our annual target. That’s equivalent to the electricity typically used each year by more than 70 homes.

Wonderful to see the archimedes screws arrive downstream for the community-owned hydro being developed at Sandford-on-Thames.  The project will incorporate three screws and will generate a whopping 1600 MWh a year – enough for 450 households. You can also see the moment they first arrived in the village yesterday here You can keep up to date with…

With good generating conditions continuing on the river, we reached the 300,000 kWh generation point just before 9pm tonight. This brings the generation for this current financial year to date to 201,682kWh or 112% of our full 12 months annual target.  Our financial year ends at the end of the month, so we hope to…

Storm Doris has been keeping us busy here at Osney Lock Hydro, filling the river with twigs and leaves which are then finding their way into the trash screen. Throughout the autumn and winter, our team of volunteers visit the hydro daily and remove any debris from the trash screen which prevents items entering into the hydro.…

A large explosion occurred downstream from Osney Lock Hydro yesterday at Gibbs Crescent. The hydro is some way from the site of the blast and our initial inspection has not revealed any damage to the hydro or powerhouse.  Our thoughts are with all those who have been affected by the explosion.

We are delighted to be able to report that we reached our annual generation target of 179,000kWh earlier today. With current river conditions, we anticipate generation will continue over the six weeks to financial year-end, increasing our generation total for the year. If you’d like to keep up-to-date with the latest generation figures, then keep…

We had a great generation first quarter of the financial year (Apr-June) and kept generating until mid-August. We then had a long dry period and did not start generating again until mid-November. September and October were the driest start to Autumn since 1951. We have had a great run over the last few weeks because…

The recent rains mark the start of our winter generation period.  As a result we have just reached the 200,000 kWh generation mark.

Osney Lock Hydro – Harnessing the power of our river We will be giving a talk about the hydro at Low Carbon West Oxford’s next open meeting and do hope you can join us. Weds 12 October, 7.30pm at West Oxford Community Primary School (Canteen) Come and find out how West Oxford has become home to the…

We were delighted to open our doors to visitors as part of the Oxford Open Doors and Community Energy Fortnight events last Sunday.  All the tours were fully booked and it was great to see such enthusiasm for the project, and hear your questions.  

To celebrate Community Energy Fortnight and Oxford Open Doors we will be running guided tours on the afternoon of Sunday 11th September. Tickets are free but booking is essential.  You can book on line here    

It has been an excellent few months for generation at Osney Lock Hydro, with 82,549 kWh electricity generated over the first three months of our financial year, equating to 46% of our annual mid-range target. Because of variability in river flows year on year, our estimated annual output is modelled using several years of flow…