Liberal Democrat member motion

Oxford City Council declared a climate emergency in 2019. The Council has made progress with the decarbonisation of Council owned social housing and leisure centres. The rise in costs of fossil fuel generated electricity over the past 12 months shows the need to push ahead with renewable energy projects.

This proposal is that the case for installing solar panels over the car parks in the city is examined.

The French government has announced plans to mandate that all car parks over 80 spaces in France must have solar farms installed. The Bentley Car Company recently announced the installation of a solar farm at their plant in Crewe which will cover 1378 car spaces and generate 2.7 MW of power. Leicester City Council has recently completed a similar but smaller scheme.

The benefit of this proposal is that it could make better use of otherwise non-productive land and further demonstrates that the City Council is fully behind the push for Green Energy and Net Zero. It could contribute to the targets for increased PV generation across the County as defined in the Oxfordshire Energy Strategy.

Two of the City owned P+R sites together total 2801 car spaces. This could generate at least 4.2 MW of power — enough for 600–800 average sized houses. If the other P+R sites are included then this rises to over 9MW which is nearly 10% of the Oxfordshire Energy Strategy target.

There are other Council owned car parks which could be utilised in this way including those at leisure centres and public parks. Even a small car park could be a useful local source of PV energy and may be able to be implemented over a shorter timescale.

There would also be opportunities to extend the existing EV charging in sites using the power generated locally. The space for physical equipment needed for connection to the local electricity grid will need consideration and planning permission as would other potential uses such as power storage.

Therefore this Council requests that the Head of Corporate Strategy submits a written report to Cabinet by the end of March 2024 which:-

• Examines this proposal to assess the feasibility of installing solar panels in various Council owned car parking sites around Oxford including extending those in existing Park and Rides.
• Considers what alternative uses of existing sites will need consideration when assessing sites for use as a solar farm.
• Explores all possibilities for funding the installation costs.
• Considers the feasibility of the Council being the operator of the solar farm(s) and thus selling the electricity generated to energy companies.
• Assesses the potential income stream to the Council from the solar farms once installed.
• Reports on discussions with the relevant County Council officers about their P+R sites being included in this scheme.
• Reports on discussions with SSE about the capacity of the local electricity grid to accept a scheme of this size.

Cllr Fouweather, seconded by Cllr Miles, proposed the submitted motion as set out in the agenda and briefing note. 

Cllr Railton, seconded by Cllr Hollingsworth, proposed the amendment as set out in the briefing note.

Council debated the motion and amendment.  Following debate, and on being put to the vote, the amendment was agreed.

On being put to the vote, the amended motion was then agreed.

Council resolved to adopt the following motion:

Oxford City Council declared a climate emergency in 2019. The Council has made progress with the decarbonisation of Council owned social housing and leisure centres. The rise in costs of fossil fuel generated electricity over the past 12 months shows the need to push ahead with renewable energy projects. This proposal is that the case for installing solar panels over the car parks in the city is examined.

The French government has announced plans to mandate that all car parks over 80 spaces in France must have solar farms installed. The Bentley Car Company recently announced the installation of a solar farm at their plant in Crewe which will cover 1378 car spaces and generate 2.7 MW of power. Leicester City Council has recently completed a similar but smaller scheme. The benefit of this proposal is that it could make better use of otherwise available land and could further demonstrates that the City Council is fully behind the push for Green Energy and Net Zero. It could contribute to the targets for increased PV generation across the County as defined in the Oxfordshire Energy Strategy. Two of the City owned P+R sites together total 2801 car spaces.

This could generate at least 4.2 MW of power — enough for 600–800 average sized houses, but at a cost of £1800-2800 per space (£900-£1400/kWp)13, compared to £450/kWp for field solar. If the other P+R sites are included then this rises to over 9MW which is nearly 10% of the Oxfordshire Energy Strategy target. The strategy identifies a need for installed PV capacity in Oxfordshire to increase from 300MW to 1900MW. This Council therefore is supportive of exploring all possible opportunities for increasing that installed capacity, whether it is large strategic scale installations like Botley West Solar Farm, or smaller and more tactical projects like the existing installation at Redbridge Park and Ride and Leys Pool and Leisure Centre.

There are other Council owned car parks which could be utilised in this way including those at leisure centres and public parks. Even a small car park could be a useful local source of PV energy and may be able to be implemented over a shorter timescale. There would also be opportunities to extend the existing EV charging in sites using the power generated locally. The space for physical equipment needed for connection to the local electricity grid will need consideration and planning permission as would other potential uses such as power storage.

Therefore this Council requests that the Head of Corporate Strategy continues to investigate the feasibility of extending solar installations on spaces in Oxford including Park and Rides, and that the Cabinet Member for Zero Carbon Oxford and Climate Justice provide a verbal update at a Council meeting before the end of 2023.