West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine has 211 MW of clean power (almost all onshore wind) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 170,000 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, £3.8m across the constituency's 41,681 homes. There is also 217 MW of wind running here on the local network. If that gets switched off, no national record shows it.
Ranks 19 of 650 for clean power approved and not built.
What is stuck, and why
| Project and developer | Tech | Size | Why it is stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hill of Fare - Hill of Fare Wind Farm & Battery StorageRES Limited | Onshore wind | 106 MW92,000 homes | Waiting 2.7 years for a planning decisionWho can move it: the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) · planning ref ECU00004592 |
| Glendye EstateCoriolis Energy/ ESB | Onshore wind | 104 MW91,000 homes | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ECU00000676 |
| Hill of Fare - Hill of Fare Wind Farm & Battery StorageRES Limited | Battery | 100 MW | Waiting 2.7 years for a planning decisionWho can move it: the Scottish Government (it decides big energy projects) · planning ref ECU00004592 |
| Bridgend Farm, Arbuthnott - Battery Energy Storage SystemOPDE UK Limted | Battery | 50 MW | Approved less than a year ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref APP/2025/0089 |
| Old Schoolhouse, Barras - Battery Energy Storage SystemGreen Switch Capital Limited | Battery | 50 MW | Waiting 19 months for a planning decisionWho can move it: Aberdeenshire Council · planning ref APP/2024/2125 |
| Forest Avenue Cottage, Drumlithie - Battery Energy StorageDrumlithie Battery Limited | Battery | 50 MW | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref APP/2023/0940 |
| Meetlaw Farm, Fordoun - Battery Energy Storage SystemOne Planet Developments Limited | Battery | 50 MW | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref APP/2022/2676 |
| Fetteresso Wind Farm (Mid Hill 3)Fred Olsen Renewables | Onshore wind | 42 MW37,000 homes | Approved 4 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref ECU00001851 |
| Craigneil HillESB Asset Development UK | Onshore wind | 35 MW31,000 homes | Approved 4 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref APP/2018/0993 |
| West Bendings - Battery StorageFiddes Battery Limited | Battery | 30 MW | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref APP/2022/2007 |
| Cullerlie Solar FarmElgin Energy ES Co Limited | Solar | 13 MW4,700 homes | Approved 5 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref APP/2021/0378 |
| Coast Viners Animal Nutrition, Drumlithie - Solar Array & Battery StorageEast Coast Viners Renewables Limited | Solar | 9.2 MW3,300 homes | Approved 3 years ago — nothing has happened sinceWho can move it: the developer and the network company · planning ref APP/2022/1701 |
Plus 7 smaller projects — see the full seat page.
Compared with its neighbours
| Constituency | Approved, not built | Running | Paid to switch off |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine | 211 MW | 219 MW | not visible |
| Aberdeen South | 4.2 MW | 0 MW | not visible |
| Aberdeen North | 0.2 MW | 0.3 MW | not visible |
| Angus and Perthshire Glens | 143 MW | 345 MW | £3.4m |
| Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey | 642 MW | 525 MW | £17m |
| Gordon and Buchan | 107 MW | 187 MW | £120k |
Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey next door has 642 MW waiting, more than West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine's 211 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.