Maldon
Maldon has 139 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 50,000 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, £3.8m across the constituency's 41,803 homes. There is also 58 MW of wind running here on the local network. If that gets switched off, no national record shows it. A 100 MW battery was refused planning here in 2022; while discharging it could have supplied about 350,000 homes.
Ranks 38 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battlesbridge Bypass, Rettendon - Battery StoragePelagic Energy | Battery | 100 MW | Refused by Chelmsford Council in 2022Who can move it: Chelmsford Council · planning ref 22/00179/FUL |
| Southlands Solar Farm & Battery StorageEnso Green Holdings Limited / Cero Generation | Battery | 57 MW | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 23/00532/FUL |
| Canon Barns Road - Solar Photovoltaic Arrays & Battery StorageLow Carbon Solar Park 5 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 21/00394/FUL |
| Maldon HallGreen Investment Group | Battery | 40 MW | Approved 7 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 17/01106/FUL |
| Hill Farm Solar Park & Battery Storage (Hanningfield Green)Gulermak Renewables Ltd | Solar | 37 MW13,000 homes | Approved 4 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 21/00555/FUL |
| Marshes FarmOne Planet | Solar | 26 MW9,300 homes | Approved less than a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 24/00901/FULM |
| St Cleres Hall Pit Solar ArraySt Cleres Solar Farm Limited | Solar | 25 MW9,100 homes | Approved 5 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 21/00081/FUL |
| Southlands Solar Farm & Battery StorageEnso Green Holdings Limited / Cero Generation | Solar | 25 MW8,900 homes | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 23/00532/FUL |
| Prentice’s Farm- Solar FarmAnglo Renewables | Solar | 21 MW7,600 homes | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 24/00366/FULM |
| Dengie - Solar PV arrayBritish Solar Renewables | Solar | 19 MW6,900 homes | Approved 2 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 23/01236/FULM |
| Canon Barns Road Solar ParkBluestone Energy | Solar | 8 MW2,900 homes | Approved 5 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 21/00502/FUL |
| Dengie - Solar PV arrayBritish Solar Renewables | Battery | 5 MW | Approved 2 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 23/01236/FULM |
Compared with its neighbours
| Constituency | Approved, not built | Running | Paid to switch off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maldon | 139 MW | 63 MW | not visible |
| Basildon and Billericay | 7.7 MW | 36 MW | not visible |
| Rayleigh and Wickford | 80 MW | 5 MW | not visible |
| Brentwood and Ongar | 1 MW | 50 MW | not visible |
| Chelmsford | 0.2 MW | 0 MW | not visible |
| Witham | 24 MW | 193 MW | not visible |
Maldon 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.