Representation by Kevin Hempson
- Date submitted
- 28 January 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I fully understand that the UK needs to create renewable energy and as such utilising sunlight through solar panels within solar farms is something which has to happen. I’m therefore not against solar farms, however I am against the Sunnica Energy Farm for the following principle reasons: 1. The scale of the project is simply too big, and it’s site is situated too close to many villages; 2. The risk of a fire at the proposed solar farm, and how this could impact many villages has not been considered enough by Sunnica, and I actually think Sunnica are dismissive of the actual risk. By simple research I’ve found there have been a number of fires at large solar farms, and consequently this suggests the risk is significant and if that were to happen at the proposed Sunnica site it would be a danger to life; 3. The proposed site will result in many acres of high quality arable land being made inactive to accommodate the solar panels and batteries. This goes against the whole logic of the UK being self-sufficient, and actually creates negative impacts to the environment as the crops lost from this land not being available will have to be imported instead and that creates negative environmental factors. Also here, the impact of Brexit and the COVID Pandemic creates a need for the UK to become more self-sufficient, so to enter into a project which creates the exact opposite impact is so counter-productive. There are many other reasons why the Sunnica project should not go ahead, for example scientific ones which argue solar isn’t the best way to create energy. I’m not knowledgeable enough about these reasons so it would be very difficult for me to make representations in that respect, even though the reasons are valid.