ENERGYMAP
No.114 of 650 · approved, not built MP: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat) England

Tunbridge Wells

Tunbridge Wells has 54 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 20,000 homes. Britain's grid bottlenecks still add to bills here: about £92 a year per household, £4.1m across the constituency's 44,382 homes.

Not visible
here
No big wind farm on the national grid is mapped to this constituency, so no switch-off payments show here in national data. Smaller wind farms on the local grid can still be paid to switch off — invisibly. The £ figure for this seat is a floor, not a zero.
how we worked this out
54 MW
of clean power — all solar — approved and still not built, enough to supply a year's electricity to 20,000 homes. Approved at least two years ago; waiting on the grid, not on planning. That is 1.8× the renewable capacity actually running here.
8 projects · planning database (REPD), July 2026 · how we worked this out
£4.1m
is what the grid gap costs this constituency's 44,382 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

6 of 8 waiting projects · years since approval
Homebase Linden Park Road 0.2 MW
6.2 YRS
Moat Farm, Five Oak Green 0.2 MW
4.8 YRS
Longfield Road, Royal Tunbridge Wells - Solar Panels 0.1 MW
4.2 YRS
Hononton Farm, Furnace Lane - Solar Photovoltaics 0.2 MW
3.6 YRS
Moat Farm, Whetsted Road - Solar Panels 0.3 MW
2.9 YRS
Maidstone Road, Horsmonden - Paddock Solar Farm 50 MW
2.9 YRS

Every approved, unbuilt project

approved 24+ months ago, still not generating · planning database, July 2026
SiteTechnologyEnough forCapacityApprovedWaiting
Maidstone Road, Horsmonden - Paddock Solar FarmSolar Photovoltaics18,000 homes49.9 MW2023-092.9 yrs
Knockout Print Services, Petteridge Lane - Solar PanelsSolar Photovoltaics900 homes2.5 MW2023-102.8 yrs
Tunbridge Wells South Wastewater Treatment Works, Broom Lane - PV ArraySolar Photovoltaics300 homes0.7 MW2023-122.6 yrs
Moat Farm, Whetsted Road - Solar PanelsSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.3 MW2023-092.9 yrs
Moat Farm, Five Oak GreenSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.2 MW2021-104.8 yrs
Homebase Linden Park RoadSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.2 MW2020-056.2 yrs
Hononton Farm, Furnace Lane - Solar PhotovoltaicsSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.2 MW2022-123.6 yrs
Longfield Road, Royal Tunbridge Wells - Solar PanelsSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.1 MW2022-054.2 yrs

Plus 4 more approved within the last two years.

Batteries

projects of 10 MW and above · planning database, July 2026 · what batteries do →
SiteSizeStatusWhile discharging
Reeds Solar Farm, Alders Road - Solar Farm & Battery Storage20 MWapproved, not built 2025could supply ≈70,000 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 Mike Martin said about the grid in Parliament? Search Hansard →

See the full league table Data (JSON)