The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme provides grants for public sector bodies to fund heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures. It’s designed to encourage green investment and support clean growth goals, alongside thousands of jobs in the low carbon and energy efficiency sectors.

As part of the scheme, Oxfordshire County Council secured grant funding and engaged Ameresco to carry out an assessment on a selection of council assets – looking at how to improve energy efficiency. Part of the assessment included the design and installation of renewables, and we were subsequently approached back in 2021 to help nine sites reduce their carbon footprint and become more energy self-sufficient.

Making a difference across a mix of sites

The nine sites our Joju Solar team worked on across the county included two fire stations, five schools, and two community centres. The focus was on cutting carbon by generating solar energy, as well as giving the sites the option to store any excess power in a battery. This way, the power could be used when the sites needed it the most and to help avoid any potential power cuts. We installed 245kWp of solar in total, and also fitted a Tesla Powerwall at every site, with the Abbey Centre doubling up on its battery power.

Nine times the carbon savings!

Since the installation, the sites have been saving approximately 43,107 KG of Co2 per year, contributing to the ongoing decarbonisation of the county, and helping to power the buildings with self-generated energy from the sun.

We thrive on supporting communities to generate and manage their own energy by ‘just adding sunshine’, and it was a pleasure to assist Oxfordshire County Council in meeting their ongoing sustainability ambitions.

Further reading

Find out more about how we work with the public sector. 

Read about our solar panels for schools projects.

Check out our solar and battery storage installations on the University of Wales Trinity St David.