Carlisle
Carlisle has 70 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 25,000 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, £4.4m across the constituency's 47,449 homes. There is also 44 MW of wind running here on the local network. If that gets switched off, no national record shows it. A 340 MW battery was refused planning here in 2026; while discharging it could have supplied about 1,191,000 homes.
Ranks 96 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low Harker Farm, Low Harker - Battery Storage FacilityZenobe Energy Limited | Battery | 400 MW | Approved 2 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 24/0093 |
| Blackdyke Farm, Blackford - Battery StorageInnova Renewables | Battery | 400 MW | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 23/0444 |
| Harker Moss - Battery Energy Storage SystemESB (Harker) Limited | Battery | 360 MW | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 24/0680 |
| Blackdyke Farm, Blackford - Battery StorageNovus Renewable Services Limited / Story Construction | Battery | 340 MW | Refused by Cumberland Council in 2026Who can move it: Cumberland Council · planning ref 23/0659 |
| Todhills and Westlinton - Harker Battery Energy Storage FacilityWindel Energy | Battery | 200 MW | Approved 2 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 23/0833 |
| Leaps Rigg - Solar FarmOpdenergy UK 7 Limited | Solar | 50 MW18,000 homes | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 23/0415 |
| High Parkfoot FarmElgin Energy | Solar | 20 MW7,300 homes | Approved 4 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 18/0197 |
| Grassing Rome Street - Battery StorageSTOR 141 Limited | Battery | 16 MW | Approved 2 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 22/0513 |
Plus 2 smaller projects — see the full seat page.
Compared with its neighbours
| Constituency | Approved, not built | Running | Paid to switch off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlisle | 70 MW | 49 MW | not visible |
| Hexham | 23 MW | 56 MW | not visible |
| Penrith and Solway | 4.7 MW | 92 MW | not visible |
| Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale | 913 MW | 1,451 MW | £15m |
| Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk | 85 MW | 685 MW | £7.0m |
Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale next door has 913 MW waiting, more than Carlisle's 70 MW.
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.