Take Action for an Oxfordshire-wide Renewable Energy Strategy

We are calling on our Local Authority Leaders to make an immediate commitment to producing a county-wide Renewables Strategy, including public consultation, and to set an early deadline for completion. 

Currently renewable projects, such as the potential grouping of sites at Tetsworth, Nuneham Courtenay and Culham and the proposed huge Botley West solar farm, are threatening vast areas of Oxfordshire’s food-producing agricultural, greenfield and Green Belt land.  

Renewables have to be somewhere but that doesn’t mean they have to be everywhere.  Our councils must have a plan, so they aren’t just reacting to the latest application.  A proper strategy will help ensure we have the renewable energy we need in places where it will cause least harm to our environment.

There are scores of applications for solar farms in our countryside, see our Solar Farm Map. Yet the Pathways to Zero Carbon Oxfordshire report, produced by Oxford University, says that even at the highest case only 1% of Oxfordshire’s land would be needed for solar generation. Therefore, all the solar energy Oxfordshire needs could be accommodated on domestic and commercial roofs, and above car parks and other public buildings, without sacrificing agricultural land at all.

To make sure we get the renewable energy we need as quickly as possible, and in a way that protects our countryside, we ask all our local authorities to work together to produce a county-wide renewable energy strategy.

Thank you to everyone who signed our petition calling on Oxfordshire Local Authority Leaders to develop an Oxfordshire-wide renewable energy strategy.  It’s made a difference!
Our councils have now agreed to prepare a Local Area Energy Plan. Find out more here.