South West Norfolk
South West Norfolk has 1.5 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 500 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, £4.1m across the constituency's 44,218 homes. There is also 22 MW of wind running here on the local network. If that gets switched off, no national record shows it.
Ranks 374 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Droves Solar FarmIsland Green Power | Solar | 182,000 homes 500 MW |
Applied in 2025, still waiting for a decisionWho can move it: the Planning Inspectorate (it decides nationally significant projects) |
| High Road, Saddlebow - Battery StorageLynn Power Limited | Battery | 50 MW |
Approved 2 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company |
| Woodlands Farm - Solar ArrayElgin Energy EsCo Limited | Solar | 18,000 homes 50 MW |
Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company |
What else is in the briefing
- All 4 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 West Norfolk 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