The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero has given long-awaited consent for a new 50MW solar farm to be built across three sites on the Cambridgeshire-Suffolk border. A decision has been pending since December 2021.
The project will also include electrical battery storage, along with infrastructure for connection to the national grid, including an extension to the Burwell National Grid Substation.
Since sharp reductions to UK feed-in tariffs in 2015, it’s been necessary to build larger-scale solar farms to ensure a viable case for investment. Solar farms must also be relatively close to grid connections.
The final decision on the Sunnica solar farm was taken by the Secretary of State because local residents had raised concerns about the loss of farmland for food production. However, solar installations can be designed to be stacked with a wide range of other farming interests including sheep, bees, horticulture and even cereals and beef. To ensure stacking is built into development plans it is important for local residents and farmers to engage creatively with solar developers and land owners.
Tony Slade, an energy transition consultant, said that the plans for the Sunnica solar farm had gone through a rigorous assessment by officials. He said, “This has jumped through every single hoop, except the ‘I don’t want to look at it hoop’.” He pointed out the project would help defend the UK from global energy price variations and carbon emissions.
The solar farm will create enough renewable electricity to power 172,000 homes and will create 1,500 jobs during construction. After it has come on-line the solar farm will support 27 full-time jobs.
The new Sunnita sites are:
- Sunnica East Site A, near West Row and Mildenhall in Suffolk
- Sunnica East Site B, south of the village of Worlington, near Mildenhall
- Sunnica West Site A, near Newmarket north of the A14 in Cambridgeshire
- Underground cables will connect the three sites and the farm as a whole to the National Grid at Burwell substation.
A Sunnica spokesperson said, “Sunnica is immensely pleased with the decision by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero to grant development consent for Sunnica Energy Farm. Sunnica would make a nationally significant contribution towards the UK’s legal obligation to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and its ongoing energy security.
“This important milestone and the decision by the Secretary of State has come after many months of intense scrutiny and robust engagement with the planning process, and wider public consultations. We will now move forward towards the implementation phase, ultimately allowing us to create clean renewable energy for the UK, and look forward to meeting with local authorities and the wider community to plan the next steps.”