South Northamptonshire
South Northamptonshire has 104 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 38,000 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, £3.9m across the constituency's 42,076 homes. A 50 MW battery was refused planning here in 2025; while discharging it could have supplied about 175,000 homes.
Ranks 62 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vicarage Farm - Battery Energy Storage SystemEnray Power Limited | Battery | 50 MW |
Refused by North Northamptonshire Council in 2025Who can move it: North Northamptonshire Council |
| Grendon Lakes, Grendon - Battery Storage FacilityStatera Energy | Battery | 50 MW |
Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company |
| Halse Road - Solar Farm & Battery StorageJBM Solar Projects Limited | Solar | 18,000 homes 50 MW |
Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company |
What else is in the briefing
- All 12 projects, each with its planning reference and the organisation that holds the next decision
- Every approval a project still needs, and which of them the public can see
- What building them would mean here — community payments, business rates and construction work
- How South Northamptonshire compares with its neighbouring constituencies
- 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