Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the answer of 6 October 2026 to question 22838 on Military Bases: Solar Power, what were the unforeseeable technical constraints which limited the benefits.

The Photovoltaic Farms Project was originally planned for numerous sites. The initial pilots were at MOD Aberporth and MOD Pendine and these demonstrated both cost escalation and the unforeseen technical constraints around energy storage reducing benefits and further impacting the economic basis for the projects. The project’s original costs were estimated at £10.2 million however, by the time the project was cancelled estimated total costs had risen to £63million, based on costings received for Aberporth and Pendine.