Back to list Sunnica Energy Farm

Representation by Deborah Saward Arav

Date submitted
4 March 2022
Submitted by
Members of the public/businesses
  • The scale of this project is unprecedented and will cause enormous disruption to the local region during construction. * The technology being installed has not been tested on this large a scale and so cannot be reasonably said to be safe. * The company proposing to build this installation has no experience with projects this large, and so cannot be reasonably expected to have anticipated or planned for things going wrong, during construction and afterwards. * The planned construction is not sympathetic to regional plans for rewilding and improved habitats for nature, which are urgently needed to mitigate the climate crisis. It is entirely possible to develop solar farms that allow farming or wildflower meadows under the panels. This is not being considered here - the many, many acres of land below the panels will be barren and uninhabitable by pollinators and other wildlife. * The site will have an enormous carbon footprint with the import of solar panels, acres of concrete being laid and the removal of local trees, hedging and wildflower verges. There are no, or vastly inadequate, plans to offset this carbon footprint through rewilding or sympathetic planting on the sites. * No local jobs will be created. But local jobs will be taken away as agricultural land is repurposed. * Various officials who have viewed the plans for the development have made it clear that these plans are lacking in sufficient detail, are deeply flawed in several areas, and that the developers are not applying due care and diligence as they aim to change a large portion of East Anglia permanently. Fertile agricultural land will be changed to brownfield, with no benefit but causing damage and disruption for the human and the wildlife residents of the area.