CONSTITUENCY BRIEFING · ENERGYMAP.APP
Washington and Gateshead South
Washington and Gateshead South has 26 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 9,300 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 41,894 homes. A 71 MW battery was refused planning here in 2026; while discharging it could have supplied about 249,000 homes.
Ranks 181 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mary Avenue, Birtley - Battery Energy StorageFig Power | Battery | 71 MW |
Refused by Gateshead Council in 2026Who can move it: Gateshead Council |
| Usworth House Farm, Peareth Hall Road - Solar FarmBoom Developments Limited | Solar | 9,900 homes 27 MW |
Refused by Sunderland Council in 2025Who can move it: Sunderland Council |
| Washington Road - Solar FarmEngerera Renewables Limited | Solar | 7,300 homes 20 MW |
Approved 5 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company |
What else is in the briefing
- All 8 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 Washington and Gateshead South 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
No account needed for any of this:
the full seat page with every figure,
the method and sources,
and this constituency's raw data.
The account covers the packaged briefing only.