Eco group wins £500k grant and plans to make Oxford the Uk's Green capital (From Oxford Mail)

Eco group wins £500k grant and plans to make Oxford the Uk's Green capital

6:30am Monday 21st December 2009 in

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ECO-campaigners say they aim to make Oxford the green capital of the UK with the help of a £500,000 Government grant.

Community group Low Carbon West Oxford started life in 2007, when four women sat around a kitchen table to discuss the floods that had damaged dozens of homes in the area.

Since then the group has grown to 150 members, who are celebrating news of the grant to transform the use of renewable energy in the city.

The money will be spent on solar panels for the King’s Centre, in Osney Mead and the Aldi supermarket in Botley Road, as well a proposed 15m-tall (50ft) wind turbine on Harcourt Hill.

Together, the panels and turbines will produce 100,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, which will provide enough power for 30 homes.

Any money left over will go towards the development of a water turbine, which is due to be generating electricity at Osney Lock, on the River Thames, within two years.

The group will use the profits from power sales to help households cut their carbon footprint.

Ms Muddiman said: “This money means we can put our plans into action much sooner than we thought. We can now forge ahead and get many more projects off the ground.

“We have the potential to become the green capital of the UK and take a lead in renewable energy. This is just the beginning.”

Low Carbon West Oxford already generates some income from selling power generated by solar panels at the King’s Centre, which has paid for work to help 36 households in the area to reduce their carbon footprint by more than a third.

Ms Muddiman said: “Grass roots projects like this are very important. It started out as four people sitting round a kitchen table asking ‘what can we do?’. It’s fantastic what you can achieve.”

More than 300 community groups applied for a slice of the government’s Low Carbon Communities Challenge cash but the West Oxford application was one of only 10 successful bids.

Climate change minister Joan Ruddock said: “Communities like West Oxford will help to develop the policies we need in the future to make a successful transition to a low carbon economy.”

The group will find out next month whether it has landed a £1m grant from the Big Green Challenge, for community renewable energy projects.

mwilkinson@oxfordmail.co.uk For more details about the group and its plans, see lowcarbonwestoxford.org.uk