Locals raise safety concerns over solar farm on Cambridgeshire-Suffolk border
1st April 2025
Safety concerns have been raised in regard to the controversial plans for a huge solar farm that is set to be built on the Cambridgeshire-Suffolk border.
The Sunnica Solar Farm is one of three new solar farms that have been approved last year by secretary of state for energy, Ed Miliband. He said that solar power was “crucial to achieving net zero”.
Residents and farmers from Chippenham, Isleham, Freckenham, Fordham, West Row, Worlington, Burwell, Barton Mills, Red Lodge and Snailwell – who would all be affected by the development – have raised their concerns.
The Say No to Sunnica Community Action Group said the solar farm would be built on some of the UK’s best, high-yielding irrigated farmland. Its members have also questioned the design and location of the development.
Safety concerns
Local farmer Nick Wright, who refused an offer to sell some of his land and was a leading figure in the Say No To Sunnica action group, told the Racing Point: “In California in January, a lithium battery storage system, similar to the one Sunnica is proposing, caught fire and burned out of control for three days.
“They had to evacuate everything and everyone within a three-mile radius of the fire. A three-mile radius from one of the sites here goes halfway through Newmarket.”
The media outlet also confirmed that Sunnica has not yet submitted a battery safety management plan.
Mr Wright added: “We’re all concerned about this, and if the batteries catch fire, they cannot be put out. You have to let them burn out themselves.
“The only way you can control it is if you dampen down the area around them, which means contaminated water, and if that gets into the system we’re in real trouble.”
According to Sunnica, the solar farm could power 172,000 homes and create 1,500 jobs during construction, with 27 full-time jobs to run it.
The company also said the land used would be decontaminated and returned to its original, largely agricultural, use once the scheme was finished.
Locals opposed
Back in July 2024, councillor Richard Rout of Suffolk County Council said that the approval of this solar farm is a “massive blow to local communities, agriculture, nature and our landscape” in the west of Suffolk.
He added: “I am frankly shocked that the poorest infrastructure application that I have ever dealt with has now been approved – we highlighted numerous deficiencies in the submission.
“The voices of thousands of local residents, businesses and organisations have not been listened to. This scheme will permanently and detrimentally impact the landscape of a vast part of West Suffolk and remove thousands of acres of land from food production.
“Despite some improvements to the initial application, we felt that the proposals did not meet the standards we and local communities would expect from a project on this scale.
“Local residents will quite rightly be asking what it takes for a project to be refused, when the worst project we have dealt with gets consented in the face of so much opposition.”
Sunnica has been approached for a comment.
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