Representation by Samantha Munro
- Date submitted
- 17 February 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I fully and completely object to the proposed Sunnica Solar Farm, or any other Solar Scheme, that is large in size that includes any battery storage surrounding settlements.. Solar on large scale is known not to be that effective in its energy production and lifespan of efficiency declines rapidly over early years. I don’t feel it’s carbon efficient. Many aspects and concerns of residents have been ignored. Questions are not answered. When information is provided it is inadequate and not believable. The information I have found seems to conflict with that of Sunnica. There are serious safety concerns that I have and am not happy with the scheme having any battery storage facilities whatsoever. If the scheme is designed to help climate change then batteries are counter productive and are there purely to make the developer money. I have been given no valid reason why it could not be sited elsewhere or reasons why it had to be surrounding settlements and in such scale. I feel that the Decommissioning of a scheme this size is unlikely to happen. Where do you put 1.1m panels just from this scheme, let alone the many sites already in the UK or in planning. Ship it overseas, like we seem to with a majority of hard to recycle items. Even bigger carbon foot print from so called green solar schemes. I dispute the soil gradings quoted by Sunnica and must insist that a totally independent survey is carried out on all land included in the scheme. The local area is high grade agricultural land, growing a diverse array of crops for many years. We simply cannot allow land of this growing quality to become industrialised and then become ‘brown field’ when spent leading to development. We cannot afford to lose quality productive farming land, gambling on it being restorable. Our country’s food security is essential right now and certainly into our future. Too much land across the country is being lost to so called ‘green schemes’ a quick fix which will cost us dearly in the years to come. We cannot and must not become more dependent on imports. It just doesn’t make sense with climate change to ship it in, when we can grow it ourselves and create more jobs, than the solar scheme ever would. The whole project is supposed to help with climate change, yet panels are made in China and shipped around the world. Why are they potentially using companies that have very poor employment and health and safety conditions and quality of build, when they could be made in the UK by our workers. What about the carbon implications of importing and decommissioning. I also feel the quality from Chinese imports are inclined to fail more quickly. Battery storage of energy has proven to be unpredictable and dangerous in many instances across the media with them combusting causing explosions, long burning fires that cannot be extinguished, leading to dangerous toxins being released into the environment potentially causing major health issues to humans and wildlife. It would also cause danger to life to adjoining properties if extensive crop fires were to take hold. My house is surrounded on three sides by these large unstable battery storage units. These are not necessary and should never be put anywhere near our residential areas, which include schools. I am seriously concerned that leaking panels could leach dangerous chemicals into our water courses and am unconvinced to say the least that the service and management of the panels would be sufficient to detect this early enough. What if the panels are struck by lightening, over such a large area the chances are greatly increased. Huge disruption and delays during construction meaning increased traffic, road closures, temporary traffic lights, through the villages on narrow roads with tight bends not suitable for HGV’s who will use both sides of carriageway in places, in already dangerous places in a small village without traffic calming measures or crossings. Many of the lanes/roads are already in poor condition, with deep collapsed edges, which are unsafe for cars to be pushed into. Any development would require commitment to make good the roads. The roads can not take this amount of construction traffic. I will suffer from the visual impact of the scheme and restricted access to green areas and footpath closures. The area will change in an extremely dramatic way from rural farming to living in an industrial facility with no escape. This would effect my mental wellbeing feeling trapped amongst prison fencing and seas of panels. I have great concerns regarding the health of both my Husband and myself both [Redacted]. We chose to live in rural location for our health and this would become an almost all surrounding industrial area. Construction and potential dangers from toxins during fires would affect us severely. This would also effect property sale, if we were forced to move. There will be major noise pollution during such huge construction and piling and then from batteries and inverters humming. We currently have diverse wildlife and its enjoyment and conservation are very important to me. Any development of this type and size will have huge detrimental and devastating effect on both our flora and fauna and the chalk streams if polluted, that run through the site. We need to become more independent of importing food not less. We can survive with less energy but not less food. In a turbulent world suffering from both man made and natural disasters, we need to plan for the future, not just quick fixes that kick the can down the road for future generations to struggle with. The decisions we make over the next few years could make or break us. This is not a profit making, box ticking exercise, it’s our futures. I support renewables in the UK but feel there are better alternatives that do not threaten our futures so detrimentally. I wish to be kept up to date and informed at all stages.