Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney
Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney has 66 MW of clean power (onshore wind and solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 42,000 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 42,525 homes.
Ranks 101 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mynydd Carn Wind FarmPennant Walters | Onshore wind | 34 MW30,000 homes | Approved 2 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref DNS/3270299 |
| Wauntysswg Farm, near TredagarElgin Energy | Solar | 30 MW11,000 homes | Approved 7 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref DNS/3213639 |
| Pen March Wind FarmRWE Renewables UK Limited | Onshore wind | 30 MW26,000 homes | Refused by the Welsh Government (it decides big energy projects) in 2025Who can move it: the Welsh Government (it decides big energy projects) · planning ref DNS/3253147 |
| Manmoel Wind FarmCenin Renewables | Onshore wind | 28 MW24,000 homes | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref DNS/3239181 |
| Convatec Green Manufacturing HubConvatec Limited | Onshore wind | 15 MW13,000 homes | Refused by the Welsh Government (it decides big energy projects) in 2025Who can move it: the Welsh Government (it decides big energy projects) · planning ref CAS-02977-Y9F1W7 |
| Rassau Industrial Estate, Rassau - Battery Energy StoragePrivate Developer | Battery | 8 MW | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref C/2023/0078 |
| Rassau Industrial EstatePrivate Developer | Battery | 6 MW | Under constructionWho can move it: the developer · earliest connection 2027 (in construction) · planning ref C/2019/0326 |
| Convatec Green Manufacturing HubConvatec Limited | Solar | 5 MW1,800 homes | Refused by the Welsh Government (it decides big energy projects) in 2025Who can move it: the Welsh Government (it decides big energy projects) · planning ref CAS-02977-Y9F1W7 |
Plus 2 smaller projects — see the full seat page.
Compared with its neighbours
| Constituency | Approved, not built | Running | Paid to switch off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney | 66 MW | 23 MW | not visible |
| Caerphilly | 20 MW | 32 MW | not visible |
| Newport West and Islwyn | 0.3 MW | 22 MW | not visible |
| Torfaen | 3.5 MW | 10 MW | not visible |
| Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare | 10 MW | 31 MW | not visible |
| Monmouthshire | 33 MW | 39 MW | not visible |
Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney has more approved-and-waiting capacity than any of its neighbouring seats.
The rest of the briefing
- Every approval each project still needs, and which of them the public can see
- What building them would mean here — community payments, business rates and construction work
- 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
Everything above needs no account, and neither does the full seat page, the method or this constituency's raw data. The account covers the packaged briefing and its PDF, and nothing else.