No.53 of 650 · approved, not built MP: Jo White (Labour) England

Bassetlaw

Bassetlaw has 114 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 41,000 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 45,676 homes.

Not visible
here

No big wind farm on the national grid is mapped to this constituency, so no switch-off payments show here in national data. Smaller wind farms on the local grid can still be paid to switch off — invisibly. The £ figure for this seat is a floor, not a zero.

how we worked this out

114 MW

of clean power — all solar — approved and still not built, enough to supply a year's electricity to 41,000 homes. Approved at least two years ago; waiting on the grid, not on planning. That is 1.3× 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 45,676 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

Gainsborough Road, Saundby - Solar Farm 78 MW

4.1 YRS

Schutz UK Limited, Claylands Avenue - Solar Panels 1.7 MW

3.0 YRS

Misterton PSD, Stockwith Road - Solar Panels 0.4 MW

2.4 YRS

Rayton Farm Lane - Solar Farm 34 MW

2.4 YRS

Bridge Street - Solar Pv System 0.2 MW

2.1 YRS

Every approved, unbuilt project

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

Site	Technology	Enough for	Capacity	Approved	Waiting
Gainsborough Road, Saundby - Solar Farm	Solar Photovoltaics	28,000 homes	78.0 MW	2022-07	4.1 yrs
Rayton Farm Lane - Solar Farm	Solar Photovoltaics	12,000 homes	34.0 MW	2024-03	2.4 yrs
Schutz UK Limited, Claylands Avenue - Solar Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	600 homes	1.7 MW	2023-07	3.0 yrs
Misterton PSD, Stockwith Road - Solar Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	200 homes	0.4 MW	2024-02	2.4 yrs
Bridge Street - Solar Pv System	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.2 MW	2024-06	2.1 yrs

Plus 2 more approved within the last two years.

Batteries

projects of 10 MW and above · planning database, July 2026 · what batteries do →

Site	Size	Status	While discharging
Elkesley Southbound, Elkesley - Battery Energy Storage System	480 MW	in planning	could supply ≈1,682,000 homes
Gainsborough Road, Saundby - Battery Storage Facility	120 MW	being built 2022	could supply ≈420,000 homes

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 Jo White said about the grid in Parliament? Search Hansard →

See the full league table Data (JSON)