Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway was paid £11m last year to switch off its wind farms, because the wires south were full. That would cover every local household's electricity for 132 days. A further 560 MW of approved clean power (almost all onshore wind) is still waiting to be built here: enough to supply a year's electricity to 488,000 homes. A 40 MW battery approved at Kellwood Road in 2025 would store power that is currently wasted; it has not been built.
Ranks 7 of 650 for clean power approved and not built; 7 of 19 among seats with visible switch-off payments.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blair Hill Wind FarmRES Limited | Onshore wind | 145 MW127,000 homes | Waiting 17 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) · earliest connection 2036 · planning ref ECU00004878 |
| Mid Moile Wind FarmEnergieKontor UK Limited | Onshore wind | 99 MW87,000 homes | Cannot connect to the grid until 2031, 6 years after it was approvedWho can move it: the grid operator (NESO) and SP Transmission · earliest connection 2031 · planning ref ECU00003405 |
| Quantans Hill Wind FarmVattenfall Wind Power Limited | Onshore wind | 96 MW84,000 homes | Waiting 3.5 years for a planning decisionWho can move it: the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) · planning ref ECU00003399 |
| Windy Standard III Wind Farm (Brockloch Rig Phase 2)Fred Olsen Renewables | Onshore wind | 88 MW77,000 homes | Under constructionWho can move it: the developer · earliest connection 2027 (in construction) · planning ref ECU00000335 |
| Glenvernoch Wind FarmEnergiekontor (UK) Limited | Onshore wind | 86 MW75,000 homes | Waiting 21 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) · earliest connection 2037 · planning ref ECU00004892 |
| Stranoch 2EDF Energy | Onshore wind | 84 MW73,000 homes | Cleared the grid queue review, so it now has a firm connection dateWho can move it: the grid operator (NESO) · earliest connection 2026 · planning ref ECU00000710 |
| Shepherd's Rig Wind FarmBoralex/Infinergy | Onshore wind | 81 MW71,000 homes | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ECU00000735 |
| Troston LochEDF Energy Renewables | Onshore wind | 67 MW59,000 homes | Approved 6 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ECU00001785 |
| Lorg WindfarmRWE Npower Renewables | Onshore wind | 64 MW56,000 homes | Cannot connect to the grid until 2027, 1 year after it was approvedWho can move it: the grid operator (NESO) and SP Transmission · earliest connection 2027 · planning ref ECU00003283 |
| Lairdmannoch Energy ParkWind2 / Octopus Energy | Onshore wind | 60 MW52,000 homes | Waiting 14 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) · planning ref ECU00004900 |
| Kilgallioch Windfarm (Extension)ScottishPower Renewables | Onshore wind | 50 MW44,000 homes | Under constructionWho can move it: the developer · earliest connection 2027 (in construction) · planning ref ECU00001996 |
| High Mark Wind Farm - Wind TurbinesWind Estate (UK) Ltd | Onshore wind | 50 MW44,000 homes | Applied in 2026, still waiting for a decisionWho can move it: the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) · planning ref ECU00005159 |
Plus 31 smaller projects — see the full seat page.
Compared with its neighbours
| Constituency | Approved, not built | Running | Paid to switch off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dumfries and Galloway | 560 MW | 695 MW | £11m |
| Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale | 913 MW | 1,451 MW | £15m |
| Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock | 654 MW | 874 MW | £18m |
Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale next door has 913 MW waiting, more than Dumfries and Galloway's 560 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.