South Dorset
South Dorset has 73 MW of clean power (all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 27,000 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 44,272 homes. A 60 MW battery was refused planning here in 2024; while discharging it could have supplied about 210,000 homes.
Ranks 95 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Chickerell Court Farm - Battery Energy Storage SystemStatera Energy | Battery | 400 MW | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref P/FUL/2023/04657 |
| Coldharbour, Chickerell - Battery Storage Facility23 Energy | Battery | 60 MW | Refused by Dorset Council in 2024Who can move it: Dorset Council · planning ref P/FUL/2023/02446 |
| Eweleaze Spinney - Battery Energy Storage FacilityWeymouth Battery Limited | Battery | 50 MW | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref P/FUL/2024/04447 |
| North Fossil Farm - Solar PanelsSpring Dev 03 Ltd | Solar | 40 MW15,000 homes | Approved 5 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 6/2020/0595 |
| Galton Manor Farm - Solar FarmSpring Dev 05 Limited | Solar | 30 MW11,000 homes | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref P/FUL/2022/02429 |
| Portland Energy Recovery FacilityPowerfuel Power Plc | EfW Incineration | 15 MW | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref WP/20/00692/DCC |
Plus 2 smaller projects — see the full seat page.
Compared with its neighbours
| Constituency | Approved, not built | Running | Paid to switch off |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Dorset | 73 MW | 73 MW | not visible |
| Mid Dorset and North Poole | 3.3 MW | 90 MW | not visible |
| North Dorset | 97 MW | 94 MW | not visible |
| West Dorset | 37 MW | 83 MW | not visible |
North Dorset next door has 97 MW waiting, more than South Dorset's 73 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.