Wells and Mendip Hills
Wells and Mendip Hills has 78 MW of clean power (almost all solar) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 29,000 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, £3.5m across the constituency's 38,033 homes. A 50 MW battery was refused planning here in 2024; while discharging it could have supplied about 175,000 homes.
Ranks 87 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Station Road & Nye Road, Sandford - Battery Energy Storage SystemAura Power Developments Limited | Battery | 100 MW | Waiting 14 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: North Somerset Council · planning ref 25/P/1113/FUL |
| Yew Tree Farm, Yew Tree Lane - Solar FarmYew Tree Farm Solar Limited | Solar | 50 MW18,000 homes | Approved less than a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 25/P/1418/FUL |
| Manor Farm, Wick Lane - Solar Farm & Battery StorageQair UK | Solar | 50 MW18,000 homes | Applied in 2026, still waiting for a decisionWho can move it: North Somerset Council · planning ref 25/P/2609/FUL |
| Yanel Farm, Churchill Green - Solar FarmCapital Dynamics Limited | Solar | 50 MW18,000 homes | Approved 2 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 22/P/1450/FUL |
| The Strawberry Line, Brinsea Road - Solar FarmRWE Renewables UK | Solar | 50 MW18,000 homes | Approved less than a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 25/P/0809/FUL |
| Yeowood Farm - Battery Energy StorageFig Power Limited | Battery | 50 MW | Refused by North Somerset Council in 2024Who can move it: North Somerset Council · planning ref 24/P/1386/FUL |
| Nythe Road, Pedwell - Solar Photovoltaic ParkElgin Energy Services Limited | Solar | 40 MW15,000 homes | Waiting 12 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: Somerset Council · planning ref 2025/1289/FUL |
| Oldbridge, Congresbury - Solar FarmBelltown Power Limited | Solar | 40 MW15,000 homes | Waiting 13 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: North Somerset Council · planning ref 25/P/1098/FUL |
| Brinsea Green Farm, Brinsea Lane - Solar PhotovoltaicRWE Renewables UK | Solar | 30 MW11,000 homes | Approved a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref 23/P/2159/FUL |
| Manor Farm, Wick Lane - Solar Farm & Battery StorageQair UK | Battery | 24 MW | Applied in 2026, still waiting for a decisionWho can move it: North Somerset Council · planning ref 25/P/2609/FUL |
| Bowerhouse Farm (extension)Ethical Power | Solar | 20 MW7,200 homes | Under constructionWho can move it: the developer · earliest connection 2027 (in construction) · planning ref 20/P/0620/FUL |
Plus 5 smaller projects — see the full seat page.
Compared with its neighbours
| Constituency | Approved, not built | Running | Paid to switch off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wells and Mendip Hills | 78 MW | 131 MW | not visible |
| Bridgwater | 54 MW | 59 MW | not visible |
| Weston-super-Mare | 0.3 MW | 0 MW | not visible |
| Glastonbury and Somerton | 21 MW | 95 MW | not visible |
| Frome and East Somerset | 87 MW | 34 MW | not visible |
| North East Somerset and Hanham | 0.5 MW | 5.2 MW | not visible |
Frome and East Somerset next door has 87 MW waiting, more than Wells and Mendip Hills's 78 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.