Representation by John Hanson
- Date submitted
- 30 March 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
1.This application is part of a wider set of applications by the same developer, there are also two further applications by two other developers. They al use the same cable routes to get to the grid connection. They should be treated as one application. They affect over 30 villages covering in excess of 10,000 acres, this is valuable farming land. 2.Food Security Food security is an equally important issue as energy security, in fact possibly more so, if we don’t have food, we don’t need energy to cook it. This is the bread basket of the country and produces and lincolnshire as a whole is a food enterprise zone. we already have shortages in the shops and the country is losing around 40,000ha of agricultural land per year to various types of development. Solar Energy is the least efficient source of renewable particularly at our latitude, it is ideally suited to decentralised generation and should be on rooftops thus not requiring a direc grid connection. The Building Energy Regulation (BER) states that there are 250,000ha of commercial rooftop in the country, the developer is supposed to explore all other options and has not done so. 3. BMV Land We urgently need an independent soils survey. The developer states that the land is not the best and most versatile when in fact we only have their word for it, I have lived and worked in the area for over 30 years in the countryside and know many farmers and farm workers. They have quoted many locations within the proposed sites that have land as good as grade 2, even on the heaviest clay land they are getting grain yields averaging 12 tons per hectare, 50% above the national average. This is due to moisture retention in the drier summer months we have now. 4. Loss of jobs and services • Lincolnshire is the UK Food Valley and Lincolnshire had the largest crop output of the ITL2 regions within the East Midlands in 2021. This was an increase of £299 million (30%) from 2020 to £1,280 million in 2021. gov.uk/government/statistics/total-income-from-farming-for-the-regions-of-england/total-income-from-farming-in-the-east-midlands-of-england • In total the food chain provides 24% of jobs throughout Greater Lincolnshire (as compared with just 13% nationally) and 21% of its economic output (7% nationally). • The future of the food chain is therefore absolutely vital to Lincolnshire and its population, and we are strategically important to national food security. • Boasting more Grade 1 agricultural land than any other LEP in England, the Greater Lincolnshire agri-food sector will double its contribution to the economy by 2030 through an ambitious programme of investment in productive capacity, skills and knowledge to drive an increase in high- value- added sales to UK and export markets. 5. Desecration of the landscape This disaggregated, unplanned scheme, partitioning and damaging the rural agricultural landscape, by its design maximises the harm to communities, segregates rural villages and places them effectively permanently in an industrialised landscape. The effectively permanent lifespan of the scheme exacerbates the various harms to communities. It completely surrounds many properties and with panels 4.5m high no amount of screening will help. It will destroy many people and their right to a peaceful life. 6.The battery storage is potentially very dangerous, currently HSE do not recognise it under COMAH and the fire brigade do not have a workable plan to put out one of these fires if it starts. There is no recognised way of putting it out as it does not need oxygen it is called thermal runaway and releases highly toxic gases such as Hydrogen Fluoride, Hydrogen Cyanide and many more. The only thing the fire brigade can do is flood it with water which also then turns to highly corrosive acid. The MP Maria Miller is taking this to judicial review on safety grounds 7. Flooding The total area of all 4 schemes is 40 sq kilometers this is like putting a solid roof over the city of lincoln and it extending beyond the ring road. If this were under building regulations it would have to most likely not be allowed. If it was it would have to have properly designed and calculated SUD's control consisting of huge attenuation schemes to retain the flash run off. Much of this land is low lying and already suffers form flooding the ditches and culverts will not take it, they will block and back up causing flooding, pain and suffering for people. 8. Visual Aspect Many of the smaller schemes under 50mw have been refused by local councils and gone to the planning inspectorte at appeal,and many have been refused by the planning inspectorate on basically the impact on the visual landscape, amenity rights and harm to the enjoyment of the countryside. This must set some sort of precedent! It will ruin peoples lives, the tourist industry which is huge in the area around £47m i believe, it will put farmers, farm workers, out oa job, agricultural suppliers, machinery dealers, engineers, gamekeepers, and many many more will lose money an some will go out of business. 9. Greenwash Solar is right in the right place, and that may not be the cheapest and most convenient place to put just so it can make money for foreign investors and big business in general, the government should enforce all new housing t have solar, and create an incentive for the mass of commercial building to fit it. This would negate most of the grid connection problems with some sites waiting up to 10 years for a connection. I have much more to say but i think that's enough for now except why cover 10,000 acres of good quality farmland in a system that produces by the govt own figues between 8 and 10% of its capacity rating. One wind turbine at sea wouldproduce thesame energy as 65 acres of land. the figures we here about how many homes they "COULD" supply are completly missleading to the majority of people who don't understand the details. One more point the battery storage is not there to help use energy when the sun doesn't shine. its there to make the developer/ operator at least double their profit by holding power when it at a low price and selling at peak periods when the price is high. This is just WRONG and does not benefit the consumer, in fact only exacerbates the situation because peak period comes around soon because supply is being held back for the sake of profit.