LCWO is one of 10 finalists in a national competition called the Big Green Challenge run by NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts). NESTA have a prize fund of £1,000,000 to award to the most successful and innovative ideas to reduce CO2 emissions within communities.
As a finalist we've already won £20,000 to help fund our pilot year and will find out if we have won more, in January 2010.
Our project aims to cut C02 emissions in our community by 80% by 2050 by creating community-owned renewable energy projects including:
large scale solar panels on roofs in Osney Mead Industrial Estate
a micro-hydro scheme in Osney Weir
a wind turbine on Harcourt Hill.
We then sell the electricity generated from these projects and use the income to help local households to save energy and save money. In the longer term, we also hope to use the income to increase carbon sequestration of carbon dioxide by plants, trees and soil in the watershed.
