England approved a record 222 solar farms last year. Here's what's actually holding delivery back.
Eight years of English planning application data, cross-referenced with the national grid connection register. What's driving approval, where it's fastest, and why the real bottleneck isn't planning at all.
What is in the report?
Eight years of solar planning data, England-wide - application volumes, approval rates, and the one year the whole market ground to a halt.
The delivery gap
DNO and grid connection data crossed with planning data reveals the real story: 44.4 GW of solar is stuck in the connection queue - four times what's actually been connected. Planning consent isn't the constraint anymore.
Where approval is easiest - and hardest
Regional approval rates vary by nearly 17 points across England - knowing which is which is a real edge before you site a scheme. We also found England's biggest solar planning authority hiding under six abolished district names in the raw data. data.
What happens on appeal
Nearly half of every solar refusal issued since 2018 has already been overturned. We break down success rates by procedure type.
What next?
Get in touch if you have any questions, or would like a one-to-one demonstration of the platform. Want to run this kind of analysis yourself? Explore Searchland's MCP connector or see how land values and ownership data fit alongside planning data in the platform.
