North Ayrshire and Arran
North Ayrshire and Arran has 74 MW of clean power (mostly solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 33,000 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, £4.1m across the constituency's 44,516 homes. There is also 100 MW of wind running here on the local network. If that gets switched off, no national record shows it.
Ranks 92 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hunterston Grid Services Complex - Energy Storage FacilityAmp Energy | Battery | 400 MW | Approved 5 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ECU00003319 |
| Flemyland Battery StorageFlemyland Battery Storage Limited | Battery | 100 MW | Cleared the grid queue review, so it now has a firm connection dateWho can move it: the grid operator (NESO) · earliest connection 2029 · planning ref ECU00004984 |
| High Boydstone Farm - Battery Energy Storage FacilityNew Energy Partnership | Battery | 100 MW | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ECU00005094 |
| Crosbie Wind FarmGalileo Green Energy Scotland Limited (GGE Scotland) | Onshore wind | 98 MW86,000 homes | Waiting 18 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) · planning ref ECU00004981 |
| Benthead Farm - Solar Farm & Battery StorageLocogen Limited | Solar | 63 MW23,000 homes | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ECU00004702 |
| Crosbie Wind FarmGalileo Green Energy Scotland Limited (GGE Scotland) | Battery | 50 MW | Waiting 18 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) · planning ref ECU00004981 |
| Benthead Farm - Solar Farm & Battery StorageLocogen Limited | Battery | 31 MW | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ECU00004702 |
| Meiklelaught Farm - Battery StorageGreen Power Consultants | Battery | 30 MW | Cannot connect to the grid until 2028, 5 years after it was approvedWho can move it: the grid operator (NESO) and SP Transmission · earliest connection 2028 · planning ref 23/00731/PPM |
| Swinlees Wind FarmThe Farm Energy Partnership | Onshore wind | 26 MW22,000 homes | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 24/00843/PPM |
| Ardoch FarmCapbal | Battery | 20 MW | Cannot connect to the grid until 2026, 1 year after it was approvedWho can move it: the grid operator (NESO) and SP Transmission · earliest connection 2026 · planning ref 24/00941/PPM |
| Wardlaw Wood Windfarm - Battery StorageCommunity Windpower Limited | Battery | 20 MW | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 23/00593/PP |
| Wardlaw Wood - Solar FarmCommunity Windpower Limited | Solar | 20 MW7,300 homes | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 24/00773/PP |
Plus 6 smaller projects — see the full seat page.
Compared with its neighbours
| Constituency | Approved, not built | Running | Paid to switch off |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Ayrshire and Arran | 74 MW | 105 MW | not visible |
| Central Ayrshire | 51 MW | 10 MW | not visible |
| Kilmarnock and Loudoun | 82 MW | 283 MW | £900k |
| East Renfrewshire | 0.5 MW | 361 MW | £4.6m |
| Paisley and Renfrewshire South | 0 MW | 0 MW | not visible |
| Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West | 1.3 MW | 24 MW | not visible |
Kilmarnock and Loudoun next door has 82 MW waiting, more than North Ayrshire and Arran's 74 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.