No.84 of 650 · approved, not built MP: Pamela Nash (Labour) Scotland

Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke

Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke was paid £2.4m last year to switch off its wind farms, because the wires south were full. That would cover every local household's electricity for 30 days. A further 80 MW of approved clean power (all onshore wind) is still waiting to be built here: enough to supply a year's electricity to 70,000 homes.

£2.4m

paid to wind farms here not to generate in the last year — enough to pay for every household here's electricity for 30 days.

Elexon balancing data, 12 months to 31 Jul 2026 · No.13 of 19 seats with visible switch-offs · how we worked this out

80 MW

of clean power — all onshore wind — approved and still not built, enough to supply a year's electricity to 70,000 homes — about as many homes as this constituency has. Approved at least two years ago; waiting on the grid, not on planning. That is 0.4× the renewable capacity actually running here.

1 project · planning database (REPD), July 2026 · how we worked this out

£4.1m

is what the grid gap costs this constituency's 44,207 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

1 of 1 waiting projects · years since approval

Heathland Wind Farm 80 MW

4.5 YRS

Every approved, unbuilt project

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

Site	Technology	Enough for	Capacity	Approved	Waiting
Heathland Wind Farm	Wind Onshore	70,000 homes	80.0 MW	2022-02	4.5 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
Wishaw Battery Storage Facility	50 MW	operating 2020	could supply ≈175,000 homes

Wind farms paid to switch off

12 months to 31 Jul 2026 · mapping confidence shown · mapping file

Site	Paid, 12 months	Energy lost	Confidence
Black Law	£1.0m	a year of 4,900 homes' electricity	high
Black Law Extension - 1a	£1.0m	a year of 5,300 homes' electricity	medium
Black Law Extension - 1b	£320k	a year of 1,700 homes' electricity	medium

What this page does not show

The switch-off figure covers the big wind farms on the national grid only; smaller farms on the local grid are switched off invisibly, so it is a floor. 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 Pamela Nash said about the grid in Parliament? Search Hansard →

See the full league table Data (JSON)