Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey
Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey was paid £17m last year to switch off its wind farms, because the wires south were full. That would cover every local household's electricity for 213 days. A further 642 MW of approved clean power (almost all onshore wind) is still waiting to be built here: enough to supply a year's electricity to 523,000 homes. A 50 MW battery approved at Clash Gour in 2022 would store power that is currently wasted; it has not been built.
Ranks 4 of 650 for clean power approved and not built; 4 of 19 among seats with visible switch-off payments.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dorenell Extension Wind FarmGalileo | Onshore wind | 477 MW417,000 homes | Applied in 2025, still waiting for a decisionWho can move it: the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) · planning ref ECU00004862 |
| Clash GourEDF Energy Renewables/ Force 9 | Onshore wind | 225 MW197,000 homes | Approved 4 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ECU00000738 |
| Glenshero Wind FarmRES/ SIMEC | Onshore wind | 168 MW147,000 homes | Refused by the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) in 2022Who can move it: the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) · planning ref ECU00000517 |
| Clashindarroch Wind Farm ExtensionInfinergy | Onshore wind | 139 MW121,000 homes | Approved less than a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ECU00004695 |
| Rothes Wind Farm IIIFred Olsen Renewables | Onshore wind | 132 MW115,000 homes | Approved 4 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ECU00000474 |
| OurackVattenfall | Onshore wind | 105 MW92,000 homes | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ECU00001999 |
| Lethen Wind Farm Wind Turbines and Energy StorageFred Olsen Renewables Ltd | Onshore wind | 102 MW89,000 homes | Refused by the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) in 2024Who can move it: the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) · planning ref ECU00002216 |
| Teindland Wind FarmEuropean Energy A/S / Locogen Limited | Onshore wind | 85 MW74,000 homes | Waiting 13 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) · earliest connection 2029 · planning ref ECU00004556 |
| Craig Watch - Wind Farm & Battery StorageCraig Watch Wind Farm Limited | Onshore wind | 73 MW63,000 homes | Waiting 4.1 years for a planning decisionWho can move it: the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) · earliest connection 2031 · planning ref ECU00002177 |
| Cairn Duhie Wind FarmRenewable Energy Systems (RES) | Onshore wind | 67 MW59,000 homes | Cleared the grid queue review, so it now has a firm connection dateWho can move it: the grid operator (NESO) · earliest connection 2028 · planning ref ECU00003225 |
| Milltown Airfield (Speyslaw)Elgin Energy | Solar | 50 MW18,000 homes | Cannot connect to the grid until 2027, 9 years after it was approvedWho can move it: the grid operator (NESO) and SSEN Transmission · earliest connection 2027 · planning ref ECU00000452 |
| Clash GourEDF Energy Renewables/ Force 9 | Battery | 50 MW | Approved 4 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ECU00000738 |
Plus 24 smaller projects — see the full seat page.
Compared with its neighbours
| Constituency | Approved, not built | Running | Paid to switch off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey | 642 MW | 525 MW | £17m |
| Angus and Perthshire Glens | 143 MW | 345 MW | £3.4m |
| West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine | 211 MW | 219 MW | not visible |
| Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire | 453 MW | 1,272 MW | £41m |
| Gordon and Buchan | 107 MW | 187 MW | £120k |
| Aberdeenshire North and Moray East | 215 MW | 122 MW | not visible |
Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey 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.