Representation by Grace Foster
- Date submitted
- 28 February 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Boom Power are submitting plans to the Planning Inspectorate for the East Yorkshire Solar Farm, a 3500 acre solar farm on the farm land around the villages of Spaldington, Gribthorpe, Willitoft, Wressle and the town of Howden. The solar farm will be used to provide energy to Drax Power Station, using miles and miles of underground cables. Boom Power set up some public consultations in our local area, but when questioned on the plans they either could not give us the answers or they confirmed that they were not yet sure how some things would be done, especially on our concerns over noise and the use of our tiny local roads. In fact after the public consultation they actually increased the size of the area by over 500 acres! So the plans which have been submitted to the Inspectorate may not be anything like what they supposedly publicly consulted on, as they were so vague in their answers to our concerned questions. The solar panels they propose to use are some of the largest available, standing at 3.5 metres high. The like of which has not been seen in the UK. These will be surrounded by 2.2m high deer proof fencing. These monstrous panels will line the single track road to our village and will be all we can see for miles around. They are positively surrounding our homes and community with these panels. Our village is at the end of a dead-end single track lane, with no official passing places. Our roads are not in the best condition to begin with, with huge cracks forming and great big holes to the grass verges where cars have to pass. These roads will not stand up to the dozens of lorries that will descend on our area for the two year build process. Not only that but there is nowhere to pass these huge lorries on our roads, making them so unsafe and frankly terrifying, especially for my children who will be learning to drive soon. We are also a haven to much wildlife, including deers, hares, badgers and buzzards, which will all be displaced and terrified by the huge scale of this solar farm. No thought has been given to sustaining the wildlife, who rely on our land for their food and habitat. Just at a time when we need to try to be more self-sufficient, to grow and provide sustainable food for the country's growing population. No one knows what is round the corner but we should not be trying to convert our farm land into fields of glass. No-one is against greener energy and solar energy is a hugely popular resource that yes we should be exploiting more, but not at the cost of our farmland surely?! Why can't these huge panels be put onto the roofs of the thousands of warehouses and on all the new homes being built. Another concern is the distinct lack of power produced by this solar farm. The current largest solar farm in the UK is Shotwick Solar Park on the border of England and Wales. This is just 250 acres and produces 72.2MW of electricity. The East Yorkshire Solar Farm is taking up 3500 acres and produces 400MW of electricity. That is 0.11MW per acre, whereas Shotwick produces over twice that much at 0.28MW per acre. I posed this question to Boom Power but they could not offer an explanation as to why their huge panels were less effective. A final point is that the solar farm is proposed as temporary. A mere 40 years of glass and traffic to our area. So this temporary farm then has to be dismantled and there is currently very little recycling to be done with solar panels, never mind on a scale of over 3000 acres of them. All this without even thinking about the atrocities of making the battery to store this electricity and the horrors of lithium mines.