CONSTITUENCY BRIEFING · ENERGYMAP.APP
North West Essex
North West Essex has 623 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 226,000 homes. Britain's grid bottlenecks still add to bills here: about £92 a year per household, £3.9m across the constituency's 42,575 homes.
Ranks 5 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Approved | Why it is stuck | Earliest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LongfieldLongfield Solar Energy Farm Limited (part of E | Solar | 182,000 homes 500 MW |
2023 | Cannot connect to the grid until 2028, 5 years after it was approvedWho can move it: the grid operator (NESO) and National Grid · Planning ref EN010118 | 2028 |
| Berden Hall Solar FarmBritish Solar Renewables | Solar | 20,000 homes 56 MW |
2024 | Approved 2 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · Planning ref UTT/22/2046/PINS | — |
| Maggots End Road, Berden - Solar Farm & Battery StorLow Carbon Limited | Solar | 18,000 homes 50 MW |
— | Refused by Uttlesford Council in 2026Who can move it: Uttlesford Council · Planning ref UTT/25/1224/FUL | — |
| Thaxted - Solar farmLow Carbon Limited | Solar | 15,000 homes 40 MW |
2023 | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · Planning ref UTT/21/1833/FUL | — |
| Parsonage Farm - Solar PV Farm & Battery StorageTrilogy Logistics REIT Limited | Solar | 11,000 homes 30 MW |
2026 | Approved less than a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · Planning ref UTT/25/1742/FUL | — |
| Wickham Hall Estate Solar Photovoltaic FarmEndurance Energy Wickham Hall Limited | Solar | 7,300 homes 20 MW |
2024 | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · Planning ref UTT/24/1417/PINS | — |
| Stanstead Solar ProjectManchester Airport Group Plc | Solar | 5,200 homes 14 MW |
2022 | Under constructionWho can move it: the developer · Planning ref S62A/22/0000004 | 2027 (in construction) |
| Merks Hill Farm, Braintree Road - Solar FarmSky UK Development Limited | Solar | 4,400 homes 12 MW |
— | Waiting 1.2 years for a planning decisionWho can move it: Uttlesford Council · Planning ref UTT/25/1374/FUL | — |
| Wickham Hall Estate - Battery StorageEndurance Energy Wickham Hall Limited | Battery | 10 MW |
2024 | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · Planning ref UTT/24/1417/PINS | — |
| Dunmow Solar Farm, Chelmsford Road - Solar FarmDunmow Solar Limited | Solar | 3,600 homes 9.9 MW |
2024 | Under constructionWho can move it: the developer · Planning ref UTT/23/2136/FUL | 2027 (in construction) |
Plus 1 smaller projects — see the full seat page.
What building it would do here
- Building what is already approved or refused here would supply a year's electricity to about 258,700 homes (721 MW).
- It would pay about £606k a year to the local community — using the rate the government sets for wind farms, and the rates proposed for solar and batteries.
- It would be worth roughly £977k a year in business rates to the council, judging by what comparable sites are rated at.
- At peak, construction would put an estimated 497–817 people on site across these projects.
Estimates from published per-MW factors — sources and dates in the method.
Compared with its neighbours
| Constituency | Approved, not built | Running | Paid to switch off |
|---|---|---|---|
| North West Essex | 623 MW | 68 MW | not visible |
| Brentwood and Ongar | 1 MW | 50 MW | not visible |
| Maldon | 139 MW | 63 MW | not visible |
| Chelmsford | 0.2 MW | 0 MW | not visible |
| Harlow | 56 MW | 0 MW | not visible |
| Witham | 24 MW | 193 MW | not visible |
North West Essex has more approved-and-waiting capacity than any of its neighbouring seats.
What to ask
WRITTEN PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION · DEPARTMENT FOR ENERGY SECURITY AND NET ZERO
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she is taking to bring forward the grid connection date for Longfield in North West Essex, which received planning permission in 2023 and holds a connection offer for 2028.
WRITTEN PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION · MINISTRY OF HOUSING, COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
To ask the Secretary of State, what assessment she has made of the time taken to determine planning applications for renewable energy projects, including Merks Hill Farm, Braintree Road - Solar Farm in North West Essex, which has been awaiting a decision for 14 months.
LETTER TO THE GRID OPERATOR (NESO) AND NATIONAL GRID
I am writing about Longfield in my constituency of North West Essex. The project already has planning permission, but cannot connect to the grid until 2028. Please set out what would be required to bring that date forward, whether the project has been considered for an earlier connection, and what my constituents can expect in the meantime.
QUESTION TO UTTLESFORD COUNCIL
Maggots End Road, Berden - Solar Farm & Battery Storage (50 MW) was refused planning permission in 2026. Please confirm the grounds for refusal, whether the applicant was offered the opportunity to address them, and what capacity of generation or storage has been approved in the authority area since.
QUESTION TO UTTLESFORD COUNCIL
The application for Merks Hill Farm, Braintree Road - Solar Farm has been awaiting a decision for 14 months. Please set out the reason for the delay and the expected determination date.
Constituents can write to Mrs Kemi Badenoch via WriteToThem, or see what they have said about the grid in Parliament.
Story angles
1. North West Essex has 623 MW of approved clean power waiting to be built — 9.1 times what is actually running here.
2. The clean power approved but unbuilt in North West Essex would pay an estimated £606k a year into local community funds if it were built.
3. Every household in North West Essex pays about £92 a year for a grid bottleneck most of them have never heard of — £3.9m across the constituency.
Numbers, CSVs and per-seat JSON are free to reuse with attribution to energymap.app. Method and caveats.
Sources. Switch-off payments: Elexon settlement data, 12 months to 31 Jul 2026. Planning: Renewable Energy Planning Database (DESNZ), July 2026. Connection dates: NESO Transmission Entry Capacity register. Bill impact: NESO balancing cost reporting. Households: ONS/NRS/NISRA census. MP: UK Parliament Members API.
How to check any of this. Every project above carries its planning application reference. Search that reference on the council's own planning register for the primary record, including the decision notice and, where a project was refused, the reasons. Statuses here come from the government's planning database (REPD, July 2026 edition), which records the status and date of a decision but not the reasons for it — so this briefing never states why something was refused.
Caveats for this seat. 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.
Generated 25 August 2026 · full method at energymap.app/method
How to check any of this. Every project above carries its planning application reference. Search that reference on the council's own planning register for the primary record, including the decision notice and, where a project was refused, the reasons. Statuses here come from the government's planning database (REPD, July 2026 edition), which records the status and date of a decision but not the reasons for it — so this briefing never states why something was refused.
Caveats for this seat. 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.
Generated 25 August 2026 · full method at energymap.app/method