Lewes
Lewes has 26 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 9,500 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 42,024 homes.
Ranks 180 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Claverham Farm & Mount Pleasant Farm, Berwick - Solar FarmScottish Power Renewables | Solar | 50 MW18,000 homes | Refused by Wealden Council in 2023Who can move it: Wealden Council · planning ref WD/2021/2617/MEA |
| Colbrans Farm Estate, Laughton - Solar PanelsInnova | Solar | 40 MW15,000 homes | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref WD/2024/2392/MEA |
| Colbrans Farm Estate, Laughton - Battery StorageInnova | Battery | 30 MW | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref WD/2024/2392/MEA |
| Ringmer - Solar array/Battery storageOuse Valley Energy Services Company CIC | Solar | 17 MW6,200 homes | Approved 4 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref LW/22/0254 |
| Lower Mays Farm Solar FarmUnknown | Battery | 8.8 MW | Approved 5 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref WD/2021/0671/MAJ |
| Lower Mays Farm Solar FarmUnknown | Solar | 5 MW1,800 homes | Approved 5 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref WD/2021/0671/MAJ |
Plus 1 smaller projects — see the full seat page.
Compared with its neighbours
| Constituency | Approved, not built | Running | Paid to switch off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lewes | 26 MW | 42 MW | not visible |
| Eastbourne | 0.7 MW | 1.3 MW | not visible |
| Bexhill and Battle | 1.9 MW | 16 MW | not visible |
| Sussex Weald | 1.1 MW | 16 MW | not visible |
| Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven | 0 MW | 0 MW | not visible |
| Brighton Pavilion | 0 MW | 0 MW | not visible |
Lewes 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.