No.262 of 650 · approved, not built MP: Dan Jarvis (Labour) England

Barnsley North

Barnsley North has 5.1 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 1,800 homes. When the wires are too full to carry the power, Britain pays wind farms to switch off instead. No wind farm here is paid that way — almost all of it goes to wind farms in Scotland. That cost is shared across every bill in Britain, so households here pay for it too: about £92 a year per household, £4.2m across the constituency's 45,993 homes.

Not visible
here

8.6 MW of wind is running in this constituency, but it sits on the local network rather than the national grid — so if it is paid to switch off, no national record shows it. That is why this seat has no figure here: not because nothing happens, but because nobody publishes it. The £ figure for this seat is a floor, not a zero.

how we worked this out

5.1 MW

of clean power — all solar — approved and still not built, enough to supply a year's electricity to 1,800 homes. Approved at least two years ago; waiting on the grid, not on planning. That is 0.5× the renewable capacity actually running here.

5 projects · planning database (REPD), July 2026 · how we worked this out

£4.2m

is what the grid gap costs this constituency's 45,993 households in a year between them — £92 each, about 51 days of one home's electricity.

The £92 per household is a national figure — identical in every GB seat. Only the seat total varies, with the number of households · NESO · how we worked this out

The waiting list

5 of 5 waiting projects · years since approval

Westgate Plaza One - Solar Photovoltaic Panels & Air Source Heat Pumps

4.8 YRS

Ferrymoor Way, Grimethorpe - Solar Panels 0.2 MW

4.0 YRS

Lundwood, Sewage Works - Solar Array 1.3 MW

2.6 YRS

Park Springs, Long Royd - Solar Panels 3.1 MW

2.4 YRS

Monk Bretton Service Reservoir - Solar Array 0.4 MW

2.4 YRS

Every approved, unbuilt project

approved 24+ months ago, still not generating · planning database, July 2026

Site	Technology	Enough for	Capacity	Approved	Waiting
Park Springs, Long Royd - Solar Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	1,100 homes	3.1 MW	2024-03	2.4 yrs
Lundwood, Sewage Works - Solar Array	Solar Photovoltaics	500 homes	1.3 MW	2024-01	2.6 yrs
Monk Bretton Service Reservoir - Solar Array	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.4 MW	2024-03	2.4 yrs
Ferrymoor Way, Grimethorpe - Solar Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.2 MW	2022-07	4.0 yrs
Westgate Plaza One - Solar Photovoltaic Panels & Air Source Heat Pumps	Solar Photovoltaics	—	— MW	2021-10	4.8 yrs

Plus 1 more approved within the last two years.

What this page does not show

Smaller wind farms on the local grid are also switched off; national data does not show it, so the £ figure here is a floor, not a zero. Offshore wind is counted nationally, never per seat. The planning database can run a quarter behind reality.

Electricity does not travel from a particular project to particular houses. Everything generated goes into the national grid and everyone draws from that shared pool, so "enough for X homes" is a way of sizing the electricity — not a claim that these homes would be powered by this site. Battery storage is counted separately from generation: it moves power in time rather than making it.

Planning statuses come from the government's planning database (REPD), which records what was decided and when, but not why. Where a project was refused we say so and name the authority; for the reasons, look up the planning reference on that council's own register. How to check any figure on this page →

Read the full method, including everything we cannot see →

What has Dan Jarvis said about the grid in Parliament? Search Hansard →

See the full league table Data (JSON)