Power plant · West Lancashire, England, United Kingdom

Wanes Blades Road Solar Farm

Wanes Blades Road Solar Farm is a cancelled solar power plant in West Lancashire, England, United Kingdom, with 16 MW of capacity, operated by Green Switch Solutions.

Facts

Every value links to its source, and to the source's own record where it has one. Licences and last-checked dates are per row.

Fact	Value	Source
Location	West Lancashire (coordinates), England	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Address	Land To The East Of Wanes Blades Road, Lathom	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Status	Cancelled (secretary of state, refusal)	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Application date	24 Jul 2014 (reference 2014/0791/FUL, planning authority West Lancashire)	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Decision date	21 Jan 2016 (secretary of state refused, reference 2014/0791/FUL, planning authority West Lancashire)	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Decision date	21 Jan 2016 (appeal refused, reference 2014/0791/FUL, planning authority West Lancashire)	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Decision date	17 Nov 2014 (refused, reference 2014/0791/FUL, planning authority West Lancashire)	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Operator	Green Switch Solutions (applicant)	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Capacity	16 MW	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Technology	Solar Photovoltaics	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026
Coordinates	53.5997, -2.7897	DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD) · Open Government Licence v3.0 · checked 24 Oct 2026

Research on this power plant and its operator.Who owns it up to the parent company, its grid connection and planning status, and an introduction to the operator.

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Latest events

Dated events about this power plant from official notices and registers, newest first. All recent changes.

21 Jan 2016Permit refused (secretary of state refused, planning authority West Lancashire, reference 2014/0791/FUL)
21 Jan 2016Permit refused (appeal refused, planning authority West Lancashire, reference 2014/0791/FUL)
17 Nov 2014Permit refused (planning authority West Lancashire, reference 2014/0791/FUL)
24 Jul 2014Permit applied for (planning authority West Lancashire, reference 2014/0791/FUL)

How it compares

Wanes Blades Road Solar Farm is the 1,079th-largest of 4,035 power plants in England and the 1,789th-largest of 5,834 in the United Kingdom by capacity; its 16 MW is <0.1% of the 200,500 MW we hold for the United Kingdom. Ranks and totals cover the power plants in our data that report their capacity, not every one in existence. Power plants planned, permitted or under construction are ranked apart.

Within	Rank	Total	Share
England	1,079th of 4,035	134,434 MW	<0.1%
United Kingdom	1,789th of 5,834	200,500 MW	<0.1%
All power plants in our data	7,871st of 15,799	1,918,113 MW	<0.1%

Nearby

Within 50 km of this power plant: 374 grid connections (202 operating, 1,761 MW), 335 substations, 17 data centers, 3 gas storage facilities and 2 transmission lines, measured from the coordinates in the facts above. The table shows the nearest 9, up to 3 per kind.

Name	Kind	Size	Status	Distance
Wigan ETW grid connection	Grid connection	3.12 MW	Operating	0.6 km
Burscough Bridge	Substation	—	—	3.2 km
Pilkington Technology Centre grid connection	Grid connection	2 MW	Operating	3.4 km
Stanley Way Generation grid connection	Grid connection	20.3 MW	Operating	4.1 km
Skelmersdale BSP	Substation	—	—	4.2 km
Skelmersdale	Substation	—	—	4.2 km
Data center, England (OSM way 1551100328)	Data center	—	—	17 km
Iron Mountain	Data center	—	—	23 km
Verizon Warrington	Data center	—	—	23 km

Operator and place

Other power plants in England

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Ratcliffe-on-Soar2,021 MW
Cottam2,000 MW
Walpole Flexible Generation Project2,000 MW
West Burton2,000 MW
Eggborough1,960 MW
Staythorpe1,828 MW
Fiddler’s Ferry1,510 MW

All 5872 power plants in England, United Kingdom

Data on this page

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. DUKES 5.11: Power stations in the United Kingdom, Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. DESNZ Renewable Energy Planning Database (REPD), Open Government Licence v3.0.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (Sep 2026). EIA-860 / 860M / 923, Public domain.
SP Electricity North West, via Northern Powergrid Open Data. SP Electricity North West open data portal, CC BY 4.0.
JRC Open Power Plants Database (JRC-PPDB-OPEN), European Commission, Joint Research Centre. JRC Open Power Plants Database (JRC-PPDB-OPEN), CC BY 4.0.
Bundesnetzagentur, Marktstammdatenregister. Marktstammdatenregister, DL-DE-BY-2.0.
Dutch power station owners' and operators' pages. Dutch power station owners' and operators' pages, Facts only, each linked to its page.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Planning Inspectorate: National Infrastructure Projects, Open Government Licence v3.0.
RVO SDE(+)(+) projecten in beheer and SDE viewer. RVO SDE(+)(+) projecten in beheer and SDE viewer, Free reuse, no attribution required.
Wikidata. Wikidata, CC0 1.0.