Representation by John Cole
- Date submitted
- 17 March 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
This is the first of four similar solar projects in this area, each around 500MW, that are adjacent to each other and connect to the same local network infrastructure. The impact they have on the local environment should be considered cumulatively. The four projects cumulatively will form the largest solar park in Europe, and individually each of the four will be the largest in the UK by a factor of more than 5 (the largest currently is just 72.5MW). This in an area of high agricultural output (the so called Bread Basket of England). In total the four projects cover 10,000acres of high quality agricultural land (grades 1,2 and 3) - this appears to contradict the requirement for food security. It is understood that the land will be unsuitable to be returned to agricultural use when the solar park is decommissioned, so this land will be lost to food production forever. The developer has not indicated that it is providing alternative land to meet food security requirements. No significant jobs will be created by these projects and currently employed agricultural workers will become redundant with little opportunity for work in a region which doesn’t have many other suitable employment opportunities. There is likely to be very limited use of local resources (materials and labour) during construction, hence minimal economic benefit to the local communities. Construction traffic will cause major disruption due to the narrow roads that serve these sites and the high density of deliveries to supply all the solar panels, inverters, batteries and other equipment. This will be exacerbated during periods of high agricultural traffic movements. There is likely to be a very significant visual impact because the area is relatively flat. Glare will be a major issue. The very large number of solar panel supports, inverter and transformer foundations and battery enclosures will increase the flood risk in this area. The proposal for energy storage is most likely to be by lithium iron batteries (although the developer hasn’t confirmed this) amounting to 600MW. The phenomenon of thermal runaway has already resulted in major incidents elsewhere in the UK with at least one of only 20MW capacity taking 59 hours to extinguish and causing water and air pollution. The developer has been unwilling or unable to confirm what arrangements are being made here to provide fire water storage and containment and to protect the environment from such a major fire incident. There is currently no requirement for the HSE to review lithium iron battery storage although a bill is currently before Parliament to try to address this. This is the wrong technology in the wrong location.