No.196 of 650 · approved, not built MP: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat) Scotland

North East Fife

North East Fife has 21 MW of clean power (mostly onshore wind) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 14,000 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, £3.8m across the constituency's 40,975 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.
21 MW
of clean power — mostly onshore wind — approved and still not built, enough to supply a year's electricity to 14,000 homes. Approved at least two years ago; waiting on the grid, not on planning. That is 2.9× the renewable capacity actually running here.
6 projects · 12 MW onshore wind, 8.4 MW solar · planning database (REPD), July 2026 · how we worked this out
£3.8m
is what the grid gap costs this constituency's 40,975 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
Kenly Wind Farm 12 MW
9.9 YRS
Banbeath Industrial Estate 0.2 MW
6.3 YRS
Banbeath Industrial Estate Solar Array 4.2 MW
3.8 YRS
Uthrogle Mills - Solar Farm 3.5 MW
3.0 YRS
Clayton Caravan Park , Clayton - Solar Panel Array 0.3 MW
2.5 YRS
Former Madras College, Kilrymont Road - Solar panels 0.2 MW
2.5 YRS

Every approved, unbuilt project

approved 24+ months ago, still not generating · planning database, July 2026
SiteTechnologyEnough forCapacityApprovedWaiting
Kenly Wind FarmWind Onshore11,000 homes12.3 MW2016-089.9 yrs
Banbeath Industrial Estate Solar ArraySolar Photovoltaics1,500 homes4.2 MW2022-093.8 yrs
Uthrogle Mills - Solar FarmSolar Photovoltaics1,300 homes3.5 MW2023-083.0 yrs
Clayton Caravan Park , Clayton - Solar Panel ArraySolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.3 MW2024-012.5 yrs
Banbeath Industrial EstateSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.2 MW2020-046.3 yrs
Former Madras College, Kilrymont Road - Solar panelsSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.2 MW2024-012.5 yrs

Plus 2 more approved within the last two years.

Batteries

projects of 10 MW and above · planning database, July 2026 · what batteries do →
SiteSizeStatusWhile discharging
Ferrymuir50 MWbeing built 2020could supply ≈175,000 homes
Duniface Gas Peaking Plant - Battery Energy Storage System50 MWapproved, not built 2024could supply ≈175,000 homes
West Springfield Solar Farm - Solar Panels & BESS35 MWcould supply ≈123,000 homes
Fife Tractors, Drum Road - Battery Energy Storage12 MWrefused 2025could supply ≈44,000 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 Wendy Chamberlain said about the grid in Parliament? Search Hansard →

See the full league table Data (JSON)