Selby
Selby has 190 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 69,000 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, £4.0m across the constituency's 43,292 homes. There is also 34 MW of wind running here on the local network. If that gets switched off, no national record shows it.
Ranks 23 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eggborough Battery Energy Storage SystemSSE Renewables Ireland Limited | Battery | 550 MW | Cannot connect to the grid until 2032, 7 years after it was approvedWho can move it: the grid operator (NESO) and National Grid · earliest connection 2032 · planning ref ZG2024/1306/FULM |
| Eggborough Power Station, Selby Road - Battery StorageEggborough Power Limited | Battery | 500 MW | Approved 4 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 2022/1105/FULM |
| Light Valley Solar, Selby Road - Solar FarmLight Valley Solar Limited ( Island Green Power) | Solar | 500 MW182,000 homes | Applied in 2026, still waiting for a decisionWho can move it: the Planning Inspectorate (it decides nationally significant projects) · planning ref EN0110012 |
| Monk Fryston Battery StorageSSE Renewables | Battery | 320 MW | Its grid connection date of 2025 has passed and it is still not generatingWho can move it: the grid operator (NESO) and National Grid · earliest connection 2025 · planning ref 2021/0789/FULM |
| Springfield Farm, Weeland Road - Battery Energy Storage FacilityNewton Energi Limited | Battery | 240 MW | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ZG2024/0549/FULM |
| Springfield Farm, Hensall - Battery Energy Storage FacilityNewton Energi Limited | Battery | 240 MW | Approved 2 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 2023/0285/FULM |
| Rawfield Lane - Battery Energy Storage SystemHarmony Energy Limited | Battery | 200 MW | Approved less than a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ZG2024/1317/FULM |
| Stocking Lane - Battery Energy FacilityNel Tiger | Battery | 200 MW | Waiting 2.9 years for a planning decisionWho can move it: North Yorkshire Council · planning ref ZG2023/0938/FULM |
| Corner Of Weeland Road, Lunn Lane - Battery Storage FacilityNewton Energi Limited | Battery | 200 MW | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ZG2023/1179/FULM |
| Helios Renewable Energy ProjectEnso Green Holdings D Limited | Solar | 190 MW69,000 homes | Approved less than a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref EN010140 |
| Hales Lane - Battery Storage FacilityAura Power | Battery | 100 MW | Approved 4 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 2021/1089/FULM |
| Lakeside Energy Storage FacilityTag Energy UK | Battery | 100 MW | Approved 5 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 2020/1357/FULM |
Plus 17 smaller projects — see the full seat page.
Compared with its neighbours
| Constituency | Approved, not built | Running | Paid to switch off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Selby | 190 MW | 49 MW | not visible |
| Normanton and Hemsworth | 3.7 MW | 2.4 MW | not visible |
| Wakefield and Rothwell | 3.4 MW | 0 MW | not visible |
| Leeds East | 6.4 MW | 0 MW | not visible |
| Doncaster North | 3.8 MW | 21 MW | not visible |
| Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley | 1.9 MW | 7.4 MW | not visible |
Selby 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.