Back to list Sunnica Energy Farm

Representation by Diana Jones

Date submitted
13 March 2022
Submitted by
Members of the public/businesses
  1. In this more and more unstable world the UK needs to be more self-sufficient, especially in the need to feed ourselves. The land proposed to be used for the Sunnica project is highly productive by providing two yields each year of vegetables and wheat. Known as the Breadbasket of England it supplies all the major supermarkets. 2. Importing food from all over the world cannot be better, greener, than growing our own. Utilising prime agricultural land for energy making is a double mistake - by using this productive land for this low efficiency method of providing electricity. There are other more effective ways of making electricity that are greener. 3. How Green are these panels? I understand they are made in China, so the other side of the world and must be brought here. Who are they made by? I understand they maybe made be made by using Uighurs as forced labour. It is not acceptable to buy anything from China made by this method. 4. How green are the panels? How toxic are the constituents? Can they be recycled? who will pay for the recycling? Will the prime agricultural land being used be fit for agricultural use when the panels have finished their useful life? If the bulk of these panels cannot be fully recycle what will happen to them? At the moment there are thousands of of wind turbine sails and bodies being buried in landfill because there are not recyclable (in America at the moment but we have many turbines too). 5. The storage batteries can be extremely dangerous if the catch fire as a number of them already have. They cannot be put out and nearby houses would have to be evacuated. Not a good idea as this project will be constructed very near to private houses. 6. These solar panels will be constructed on sloping land as well as the farmland and therefore, no matter how many fences erected round the site, the thousands of panels will still be visible, i.e leaving our home, turning left the road curves and drops down hill. This land is part of the project and will be a depressingly vast eyesore. 7. Building this solar farm will cause major disruption over a wide area for several years, using roads that are barely wide enough for the farm vehicles that need to use them let alone vast trucks and machines. We have already experienced frustrating delays when the company were laying cables from the electricity station at Burwell along our local roads as part of this development with numerous traffic lights popping up on a six mile journey. 8. Planners from the Planning Inspectorate must come to this area to see exactly what damage will be done to the homes, villages and general ambiance of the whole area. It will be devastated.