Easington
Easington has 102 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 37,000 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 42,384 homes. There is also 28 MW of wind running here on the local network. If that gets switched off, no national record shows it.
Ranks 67 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawthorn Pit Green Energy Park - Battery Energy Storage SystemNatPower UK | Battery | 1,000 MW | Cannot connect to the grid until 2035Who can move it: the grid operator (NESO) and National Grid · earliest connection 2035 · planning ref DM/25/02255/FPA |
| Carrs Farm, South Hetton - Battery Energy Storage SystemStephenson Halliday | Battery | 200 MW | Waiting 14 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: County Durham Council · planning ref DM/25/01345/FPA |
| Woodlands, Windermere Road - Battery Energy StorageBuild Studios | Battery | 90 MW | Waiting 13 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: County Durham Council · planning ref DM/25/01835/FPA |
| Hallfield Farm, Easington - Battery StorageEden Renewables | Battery | 57 MW | Waiting 13 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: County Durham Council · planning ref DM/25/01881/FPA |
| Sheraton Hall Solar FarmLightsource BP | Solar | 50 MW18,000 homes | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref DM/20/03722/FPA |
| Hallfield Farm, Easington - Solar FarmEden Renewables | Solar | 50 MW18,000 homes | Waiting 13 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: County Durham Council · planning ref DM/25/01881/FPA |
| Hawthorn Pit -Solar FarmAura Power Developments Limited | Solar | 50 MW18,000 homes | Cannot connect to the grid until 2035, 12 years after it was approvedWho can move it: the grid operator (NESO) and National Grid · earliest connection 2035 · planning ref DM/21/03420/FPA |
| Seaham Solar Park, Stockton Road - Solar FarmElements Green | Solar | 48 MW17,000 homes | Waiting 17 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: County Durham Council · planning ref DM/25/00287/FPA |
| Benridge Farm, Fillpoke Lane - Solar PanelsDevelopment at Benridge Farm | Solar | 48 MW17,000 homes | Waiting 13 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: County Durham Council · planning ref DM/25/01964/FPA |
| Harehill Farm, Haswell Plough - Solar Farm & Battery Energy StorageHare Hill Solar Limited | Solar | 32 MW11,000 homes | Refused by County Durham Council in 2025Who can move it: County Durham Council · planning ref DM/24/03473/FPA |
| Salters Lane - Solar PanelsGrupotec Solar Uk 9 Limited | Battery | 18 MW | Waiting 13 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: Durham Council · planning ref DM/25/01801/FPA |
| Hackworth Road, North West Industrial Estate - Solar PanelsABEI Energy Green IX Limited | Solar | 15 MW5,600 homes | Waiting 12 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: County Durham Council · planning ref DM/25/02042/FPA |
Plus 5 smaller projects — see the full seat page.
Compared with its neighbours
| Constituency | Approved, not built | Running | Paid to switch off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easington | 102 MW | 33 MW | not visible |
| Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor | 47 MW | 45 MW | not visible |
| City of Durham | 1.1 MW | 34 MW | not visible |
| Hartlepool | 51 MW | 28 MW | not visible |
| Houghton and Sunderland South | 2.4 MW | 11 MW | not visible |
| Sunderland Central | 1.1 MW | 0 MW | not visible |
Easington 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.