No.20 OF 650 · APPROVED, NOT BUILT MP: Claire Young (Liberal Democrat) England

Thornbury and Yate

Thornbury and Yate has 203 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 74,000 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, £3.7m across the constituency's 39,984 homes.

Not visible
here
6.9 MW of wind is running in this constituency, but it sits on the local network rather than the national grid — so if it is paid to switch off, no national record shows it. That is why this seat has no figure here: not because nothing happens, but because nobody publishes it. The £ figure for this seat is a floor, not a zero.
203 MW
of clean power — all solar — approved and still not built, enough to supply a year's electricity to 74,000 homes — about as many homes as this constituency has. Approved at least two years ago; waiting on the grid, not on planning. That is 1.4× the renewable capacity actually running here.
17 projects · planning database (REPD), July 2026 · how we worked this out
£3.7m
is what the grid gap costs this constituency's 39,984 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

5 of 17 waiting projects · years since approval
Rag Lane Solar Farm 50 MW
4.7 YRS
Perrinpit Farm 50 MW
3.9 YRS
Hill Court, Tranton Lane Hill - Solar Farm 50 MW
3.1 YRS
Codrington Road - Solar Photovoltaic Panels 19 MW
3.0 YRS
Varley , Talbot End Farm, Cromhall - Solar Farm 25 MW
2.5 YRS

Every approved, unbuilt project

approved 24+ months ago, still not generating · planning database, July 2026
SiteTechnologyEnough forCapacityApprovedWaiting
Perrinpit FarmSolar Photovoltaics18,000 homes49.9 MW2022-093.9 yrs
Hill Court, Tranton Lane Hill - Solar FarmSolar Photovoltaics18,000 homes49.9 MW2023-063.1 yrs
Rag Lane Solar FarmSolar Photovoltaics18,000 homes49.9 MW2021-124.7 yrs
Varley , Talbot End Farm, Cromhall - Solar FarmSolar Photovoltaics9,100 homes25.0 MW2024-012.5 yrs
Codrington Road - Solar Photovoltaic PanelsSolar Photovoltaics6,800 homes18.8 MW2023-083.0 yrs
The Wave - Solar & Battery DevelopmentSolar Photovoltaics1,100 homes3.0 MW2021-104.8 yrs
Central Avenue, Severn Beach - Solar Photovoltaic PanelsSolar Photovoltaics500 homes1.5 MW2021-085.0 yrs
Dominos Pizza Uk & Ireland, Central Park - Solar PV PanelsSolar Photovoltaics500 homes1.4 MW2024-072.0 yrs
The Range Distribution Centre, Central Avenue - Solar PanelsSolar Photovoltaics300 homes0.9 MW2024-042.3 yrs
Berwick Drive, Almondsbury - Solar Photovoltaics PanelsSolar Photovoltaics200 homes0.5 MW2022-054.2 yrs
CHEP Severnside, Goldcrest Way - Solar PanelsSolar Photovoltaics200 homes0.5 MW2024-052.3 yrs
Yate Leisure Centre, Kennedy Way - Solar PanelsSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.4 MW2024-042.3 yrs
Hobs House Bakery, Hatters Lane - Solar panelsSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.2 MW2023-122.6 yrs
Great Western Air Ambulance Charity, Gloucester Road - Solar PV PanelsSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.2 MW2024-062.1 yrs
Eastwood Park, Falfield - Solar Photovoltaic (PV) PanelsSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.2 MW2023-073.0 yrs
Thornbury Leisure Centre, Bristol Road - Solar PanelsSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.2 MW2024-062.1 yrs
Oldbury Power Station - Solar Photo Voltaic ArraySolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.1 MW2023-073.1 yrs

Plus 7 more approved within the last two years.

Batteries

projects of 10 MW and above · planning database, July 2026 · what batteries do →
SiteSizeStatusWhile discharging
Westerleigh Hill, Westerleigh - Battery Energy Storage Facility200 MWapproved, not built 2024could supply ≈701,000 homes
Earthcott Green Farm, Earthcott Green - Battery Energy Storage200 MWapproved, not built 2025could supply ≈701,000 homes
Lower Larks Farm - Battery storage100 MWapproved, not built 2023could supply ≈350,000 homes
Iron Acton Substation, Latteridge Lane - Battery Energy Storage System99 MWapproved, not built 2024could supply ≈347,000 homes
Severn Road, Hallen - Battery Storage Facility70 MWapproved, not built 2025could supply ≈245,000 homes
Says Court Farm, Coalpit Heath - Battery Energy Storage50 MWapproved, not built 2022could supply ≈175,000 homes
Larks Lane & Latteridge Lane, Latteridge - Battery Storage Facility50 MWapproved, not built 2024could supply ≈175,000 homes
Larks Green Solar Farm50 MWoperating 2021could supply ≈173,000 homes
Hill Court Solar farm & Battery storage35 MWapproved, not built 2025could supply ≈123,000 homes
Patch Elm Lane - Battery Storage35 MWapproved, not built 2022could supply ≈123,000 homes
Larks Lane, Iron Acton - Battery Storage Facility20 MWcould supply ≈70,000 homes
Old Green Farm, Alveston Battery Storage10 MWapproved, not built 2019could supply ≈35,000 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 Claire Young said about the grid in Parliament? Search Hansard →

See the full league table Data (JSON)