South Antrim
South Antrim has 111 MW of clean power (mostly solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 64,000 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. Northern Ireland is on the all-Ireland grid, so Britain's grid bottlenecks do not reach bills here in the same way. There is also 42 MW of wind running here on the local network. If that gets switched off, no national record shows it.
Ranks 57 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carncome, Lislunnan Road - Battery Energy StorageValor Power Limited | Battery | 150 MW | Approved less than a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref LA03/2025/0496/F |
| Battery Energy Storage System Development in BallymenaGreen Frog Power | Battery | 79 MW | Approved less than a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref LA03/2024/0435/F |
| Kells Solar FarmElgin Energy EsCo | Solar | 50 MW18,000 homes | Waiting 11.1 years for a planning decisionWho can move it: Antrim and Newtownabbey Council · planning ref LA03/2015/0234/F |
| Battery Energy Storage System Facility in AntrimHeron Storage Limited | Battery | 50 MW | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref LA03/2024/0351/F |
| South Antrim Solar Park - Phase 2Hadstone Energy | Solar | 40 MW14,000 homes | Approved 10 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref LA03/2015/0262/F |
| Steeple RoadElgin Energy Esco | Solar | 25 MW9,100 homes | Approved 8 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref LA03/2016/0135/F |
| Whappstown & Castlegore WindfarmsCapital Dynamics | Onshore wind | 23 MW20,000 homes | Approved 7 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref LA02/2018/0897/F |
| Hightown Quarry EfWE.ON / EQT (Becon) | EfW Incineration | 14 MW | Refused by Antrim and Newtownabbey Council in 2022Who can move it: Antrim and Newtownabbey Council · planning ref T/2014/0114/F |
| Ballyutoag Wind FarmBSI Wind (formerly TCI Renewables) | Onshore wind | 12 MW10,000 homes | Approved 11 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref T/2014/0478/F |
| Seegronan Wind Farm ExtensionSeegronan Windfarm | Onshore wind | 9 MW7,900 homes | Approved 9 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref J/2013/0187/F |
Plus 4 smaller projects — see the full seat page.
Compared with its neighbours
| Constituency | Approved, not built | Running | Paid to switch off |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Antrim | 111 MW | 88 MW | not visible |
| Lagan Valley | 0.5 MW | 76 MW | not visible |
| Belfast West | 0 MW | 0 MW | not visible |
| Belfast North | 0.2 MW | 3.8 MW | not visible |
| Mid Ulster | 48 MW | 34 MW | not visible |
| East Antrim | 17 MW | 56 MW | not visible |
South Antrim has more approved-and-waiting capacity than any of its neighbouring seats.
The rest of the briefing
- Every approval each project still needs, and which of them the public can see
- What building them would mean here — community payments, business rates and construction work
- Drafted parliamentary questions and letters, filled in with this seat's figures
- 3 story angles for local reporting
- A two-page PDF, and a newsroom edition with the references and who to call
Everything above needs no account, and neither does the full seat page, the method or this constituency's raw data. The account covers the packaged briefing and its PDF, and nothing else.