Representation by Marie Shortland
- Date submitted
- 12 March 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
TOO BIG AND WILL ADVERSELY AFFECT PEOPLE’s MENTAL HEALTH. A normal Solar Farm size is 75 to 100 acres. Sunnica’s is an Industrial Power Plant, the largest in Europe at 2,792 acres, equivalent to 2,115 football pitches. You won’t be able to move outside your house without encountering multiple once green fields covered with grey industrial panels. This will greatly affect people’s mental health - already affected by Covid and isolation, growing financial burdens and losses and now the war in Ukraine. INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE. The views over the landscape and the feel of the area will be changed forever with panels, batteries, fencing, noise and light pollution a dominating factor. This would again damage people’s mental health. INEFFICIENT. Sunnica is an inefficient, opportunistic, 'hotch potch' design with panels littering the countryside in four sites with a pipeline over 15 miles long to reach the connection point at Burwell, criss crossed by many roads, railway, rivers, streams pathways and public rights of way. WE NEED FARMLAND FOR FOOD. It wastes valuable, productive arable farmland currently producing vegetable and cereal crops for a minimum of 40 years. To improve our environment there is a need to reduce the carbon miles our food travels and improve our food security as the global population continues to increase. Following Brexit, Covid and now the war in Ukraine, it is absolutely clear that we need ALL farmland to be used to produce food to reduce our reliance on other countries. NEGATIVE FINANCIALS. The financial position of Sunnica is negative in their last set of accounts (-£181k). It is extremely worrying that a company with this financial standing is able to work on an Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project involving hundreds of millions of pounds to construct and importantly provision to clear up the site should the scheme go bankrupt during its planned 40 year life. NOT FOR YOU, FOR PROFIT. This scheme will not supply sustainable energy to local housing, it will be sold for profit to large corporations and the national grid. Energy will be exported from the grid at cheap, off peak times and sold back at peak times, using the battery storage to generate huge profits from energy trading. It is not anticipated to create any long-term local jobs. There is no compensation offered for a reduction in house values. DESTROY WILDLIFE. The scheme will destroy wildlife corridors, nesting and feeding habitats, which, once gone will not be easily recovered. What is the carbon footprint of the scheme? The proposed site has several birds of national significance, one Annex 1 (the Stone-Curlew) and 5 WCA schedule 1 bird species. The site is also close to seven international, nine national and 31 locally designated sites for nature conservation and therefore the disturbance of the 2 years of construction and 40 years of solar panels will have a vast impact on our long-term ecosystems and bio-diversity. Sunnica’s proposed mitigation for most wildlife begins after the 2 years of construction, meaning irreparable damage will have already been done? How will this important wildlife be protected? Sunnica will use 30 miles of two metre high deer fencing to protect the scheme. They propose to plant sapling trees to screen this fencing, however these will take at least 15 years to form effective screening. Please can it be explained how we will be screened from the enormous effects of this scheme? DANGEROUS TECHNOLOGY. The Lithium-ion batteries used in the three Battery Energy Storage Systems are potentially dangerous, currently banned in Arizona as they are ‘unacceptable risks’, due to causing two uncontrollable fires. The fumes omitted during these toxic fires are extremely hazardous to human life. A fire of this nature has already been experienced in Liverpool. NEGATIVE EFFECT ON HEALTH. Particularly during construction residents, both young and old, with lung conditions such as COPD & Asthma are at risk from high levels of dust in the air that is potentially lethal to human health. POOR SCREENING. Whilst Sunnica commit to trying to mitigate the damage done the by the scheme, trees and shrubs will take years to grow to the height of 2.5m to obscure the panels and deer fencing and even longer for the 6m high Battery Energy Storage Systems. This means that from the start of the construction it will be over 5 years before the planting has much effect on hiding this ugly blot on our landscape. TRAFFIC CHAOS. Through the estimated 2 years of construction of the Sunnica site, the contractor will bring in Heavy Goods Vehicles, including abnormal loads, 841 staff vehicles. 1,260 staff will be working Monday to Saturday 7am to 7pm creating noise and traffic through our villages. There is likely to be many road closures, diversions and muddy conditions to endure