No.6 OF 650 · APPROVED, NOT BUILT MP: Sir Edward Leigh (Conservative) England

Gainsborough

Gainsborough has 583 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 212,000 homes. No wind farm here is paid to switch off. Almost every pound of that money goes to wind farms in Scotland, held back by the crowded wires at the border. The cost is shared across every bill in Britain, so households here pay too: about £92 a year per household, £3.9m across the constituency's 42,345 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

583 MW

of clean power — all solar — approved and still not built, enough to supply a year's electricity to 212,000 homes — 5 times every household in this constituency. Approved at least two years ago; waiting on the grid, not on planning. That is 12.2× the renewable capacity actually running here.

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

£3.9m

is what the grid gap costs this constituency's 42,345 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

6 of 8 waiting projects · years since approval

The Old Airfield Solar Photovoltaic Farm 50 MW

5.2 YRS

River Cottage, Scampton - Solar Panels 0 MW

4.0 YRS

Harvest Pet Products Limited - Solar Panels 0 MW

4.0 YRS

Ping Europe Limited, Corringham Road - Solar 0 MW

3.4 YRS

David Lloyd Leisure, Burton Waters - Solar P 0 MW

2.9 YRS

A Poucher & Sons, Lodge Farm - Solar Panels 1 MW

2.7 YRS

Every approved, unbuilt project

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

Site	Technology	Enough for	Capacity	Approved	Waiting
Gate Burton - Solar & Energy Storage Park	Solar Photovoltaics	193,000 homes	531.0 MW	2024-07	2.1 yrs
The Old Airfield Solar Photovoltaic Farm	Solar Photovoltaics	18,000 homes	49.9 MW	2021-05	5.2 yrs
A Poucher & Sons, Lodge Farm - Solar Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	300 homes	0.8 MW	2023-12	2.7 yrs
Gainsborough Educational Village, Sweyn Lane - Solar PV Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	200 homes	0.5 MW	2023-12	2.6 yrs
David Lloyd Leisure, Burton Waters - Solar PV Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.3 MW	2023-08	2.9 yrs
Ping Europe Limited, Corringham Road - Solar Array	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.3 MW	2023-03	3.4 yrs
River Cottage, Scampton - Solar Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.2 MW	2022-07	4.0 yrs
Harvest Pet Products Limited - Solar Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.2 MW	2022-08	4.0 yrs

Plus 10 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
Barfield Lane, Reepham - Battery Energy Storage System	53 MW	in planning	could supply ≈186,000 homes
West Burton Solar Project	20 MW	approved, not built 2025	could supply ≈70,000 homes
Leverton Farm - Energy Barn	10 MW	operating	could supply ≈35,000 homes
Marton Sewage Works, High Street - Battery Energy Storage	10 MW	in planning	could supply ≈35,000 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.

Read the full method, including everything we cannot see →

What has Sir Edward Leigh said about the grid in Parliament? Search Hansard →

See the full league table Data (JSON)