Representation by Paul Tuli
- Date submitted
- 12 March 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The size and scale of the proposed Sunnica solar energy facility will have a significant negative visual impact on the surrounding countryside for decades. This part of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire is characterised by small villages, country lanes and farmland, not an industrial power plant with panels, batteries, 2.5m fences and supporting infrastructure across thousands of acres of countryside. I am concerned that the high level of construction traffic present during the facility’s estimated two-year construction phase will introduce congestion, noise, road closures and mud to villages and country lanes. The proposed site wastes valuable and productive arable farmland. The proposed solar energy facility could be located elsewhere on less productive land, away from farms and villages, without detriment to its efficiency and without wasting food-producing farmland. I am concerned that the proposed facility will decrease the value of properties in the area. There is no proposed compensation for this loss, neither is there any plan to provide residents with locally-produced sustainable energy from the facility. I am concerned that, in the event of malfunction, the large battery energy storage systems pose a potential hazard to residents and homes in the surrounding villages due to the risk of fire and emission of toxic gases. There does not appear to be a plan for the facility’s eventual decommissioning. The negative impact of this facility will therefore affect our children’s generation, and potentially theirs, long after the useful lifetime of the proposed solar energy facility.