No.293 of 650 · approved, not built MP: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat) England

Mid Dorset and North Poole

Mid Dorset and North Poole has 3.3 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 1,200 homes. Britain's grid bottlenecks still add to bills here: about £92 a year per household, £3.7m across the constituency's 40,506 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

3.3 MW

of clean power — all solar — approved and still not built, enough to supply a year's electricity to 1,200 homes. Approved at least two years ago; waiting on the grid, not on planning.

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

£3.7m

is what the grid gap costs this constituency's 40,506 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 7 waiting projects · years since approval

The Purbeck School - Solar panels 0.3 MW

4.7 YRS

Sandford Road, Sandford - Solar Photovoltaics PV Equipment 0.2 MW

4.6 YRS

Big Yellow Self Storage, Nuffield Road - Solar Photovoltaic Panels 0.2 MW

3.8 YRS

Sandford Holiday Park, Organford Road - Solar Panels 0.2 MW

3.7 YRS

Birchwood Tourist Park, Bere Road - Solar PV Panels 0.2 MW

3.1 YRS

Whites Pit, Arena Way - Solar PV Array 2 MW

2.6 YRS

Every approved, unbuilt project

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

Site	Technology	Enough for	Capacity	Approved	Waiting
Whites Pit, Arena Way - Solar PV Array	Solar Photovoltaics	700 homes	2.0 MW	2023-12	2.6 yrs
The Purbeck School - Solar panels	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.3 MW	2021-11	4.7 yrs
Sandford Holiday Park, Organford Road - Solar Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.2 MW	2022-11	3.7 yrs
Canford School, Sports Centre - Solar Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.2 MW	2024-05	2.2 yrs
Birchwood Tourist Park, Bere Road - Solar PV Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.2 MW	2023-06	3.1 yrs
Sandford Road, Sandford - Solar Photovoltaics PV Equipment	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.2 MW	2022-01	4.6 yrs
Big Yellow Self Storage, Nuffield Road - Solar Photovoltaic Panels	Solar Photovoltaics	100 homes	0.2 MW	2022-10	3.8 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
Mannington Battery Energy Storage System	50 MW	being built 2021	could supply ≈175,000 homes
Holt Road - Battery Energy Storage	48 MW	approved, not built 2024	could supply ≈166,000 homes
Post Farm, Lytchett Minster - Battery Energy Storage	32 MW	approved, not built 2024	could supply ≈112,000 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 Vikki Slade said about the grid in Parliament? Search Hansard →

See the full league table Data (JSON)