No.155 of 650 · approved, not built MP: Blake Stephenson (Conservative) England

Mid Bedfordshire

Mid Bedfordshire has 43 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 16,000 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, £3.7m across the constituency's 40,057 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

43 MW

of clean power — all solar — approved and still not built, enough to supply a year's electricity to 16,000 homes. Approved at least two years ago; waiting on the grid, not on planning. That is 3.1× the renewable capacity actually running here.

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

£3.7m

is what the grid gap costs this constituency's 40,057 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 6 waiting projects · years since approval

Kenneth Way, Wilstead - Solar Panels 0.2 MW

2.9 YRS

Progress Park, Elstow, Site B - Solar Panels 1 MW

2.6 YRS

Progress Park, Elstow, Site A - Solar PV Panels 1 MW

2.6 YRS

Marsh Leys Farm, Woburn Road - Photovoltaics 0.5 MW

2.5 YRS

Brogborough Landfill, Lidlington - Solar PV park 40 MW

2.3 YRS

Prologis DC4 Marston Gate, Brockley Way - Solar Panels 0.3 MW

2.2 YRS

Every approved, unbuilt project

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

Site	Technology	Enough for	Capacity	Approved	Waiting
Brogborough Landfill, Lidlington - Solar PV park	Solar Photovoltaics	15,000 homes	40.0 MW	2024-04	2.3 yrs
Progress Park, Elstow, Site B - Solar Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	400 homes	1.0 MW	2023-12	2.6 yrs
Progress Park, Elstow, Site A - Solar PV Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	400 homes	1.0 MW	2023-12	2.6 yrs
Marsh Leys Farm, Woburn Road - Photovoltaics	Solar Photovoltaics	200 homes	0.5 MW	2024-02	2.5 yrs
Prologis DC4 Marston Gate, Brockley Way - Solar Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.3 MW	2024-05	2.2 yrs
Kenneth Way, Wilstead - Solar Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.2 MW	2023-08	2.9 yrs

Plus 1 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
Sundon, Chalton - Battery Energy Storage System	500 MW	approved, not built 2026	could supply ≈1,752,000 homes
Toddington Services, Hipsey Spinney - Battery Storage	250 MW	approved, not built 2025	could supply ≈876,000 homes
Sundon Sub Station Battery Storage Facility	50 MW	approved, not built 2021	could supply ≈175,000 homes
Sundon Substation	50 MW	operating 2022	could supply ≈175,000 homes
Chapel Farm	50 MW	operating 2019	could supply ≈173,000 homes
Greenfield Road, Westoning - Battery Energy Storage System	30 MW	approved, not built 2025	could supply ≈105,000 homes
Clayhill Farm - Battery Energy Storage	21 MW	operating 2018	could supply ≈74,000 homes
The Brickmakers Arms Battery	20 MW	approved, not built 2021	could supply ≈70,000 homes
Clayhill Farm, Greenfield Road - Battery Energy Storage	20 MW	approved, not built 2024	could supply ≈70,000 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 Blake Stephenson said about the grid in Parliament? Search Hansard →

See the full league table Data (JSON)