Lewes community energy organisation invites residents to fund solar power for two charities and farm

OVESCO (Ouse Valley Energy Services Company) announced it has opened its fourth share offer.

The organisation said this allows people in the district to invest in solar power for Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare (Ringmer), The Bevern Trust (Barcombe) and Holmansbridge Farm (near Barcombe).

Julie Salmon, director of OVESCO Ltd, said: “This is our fourth share offer, and in many ways our most exciting yet. It’s a chance to nearly double our community-owned solar capacity.”

The organisation said the 2026 Share Offer aims to raise £245,000 to bring two already-built solar arrays into community ownership, while funding a third. It said the arrays at Holmansbridge Farm (14.6kWp) and Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare (90.5kWp) are already generating power and were built using ‘short-term bridge loans’. This share offer is set to replace these loans with long-term local investment. The organisation said a third array at The Bevern Trust (101.5kWp, with battery storage) is set to be installed before the end of 2026.

Chris Rowland, CEO of OVESCO CIC, said the offer is ‘local people, funding local power, for organisations doing real good in our community’.

OVESCO said members of the public can invest from £250 up to £35,000 as an individual, or £100,000 as an organisation. The target return is five per cent a year from 2028 with capital repaid over 25 years. But OVESCO also warned that, ‘as with any such investment’, capital is at risk. Applications can be made directly through investment platform Ethex.

Nickie Thomas, who runs Holmansbridge Farm said: “We’ve always wanted to reduce our impact and be more sustainable. This made it financially possible, and more than that, it connects us to something bigger. We’re proud to be part of a project that brings real benefits to the whole community.”

OVESCO said its first share offer in 2011 funded one of the UK’s first community solar projects, which was a 100kWp array on the roof of Harvey’s Brewery depot in Lewes. The organisation said that since then it has raised £490,000 from local investors and installed 230kWp of community-owned solar across Sussex. It said this generates more than 4.2 million kWh of clean electricity and avoids an estimated 1,446 tonnes of CO₂.

People can find out more about the 2026 Share Offer, including the risks, at ovesco.co.uk/2026-share-offer.

A spokesperson said: “The need for community-owned solar energy feels more pressing by the year. Sussex is no stranger to summer heatwaves, and as extreme weather becomes more frequent, the case for clean, reliable, home-grown power gets harder to ignore, both for cutting the carbon emissions driving that heat, and for giving local organisations more control over rising, unpredictable energy costs. For charities like Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare and The Bevern Trust, and small businesses like Holmansbridge Farm, that's not an abstract concern. It's the difference between spending money on animal care, disability support and local jobs, or on an electricity bill.”