Welcome to our website detailing our proposals for Sunnica Energy Farm

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Close of Sunnica Energy Farm Examination (March 2023)

The Sunnica Energy Farm Examination closed on 28 March 2023. Thank you to everyone who took part in the Examination. The documents remain available to view on the Planning Inspectorate’s National Infrastructure Planning website: https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/projects/eastern/sunnica-energy-farm/

The next step is for the Examining Authority to write its report and make a recommendation to the Secretary of State. This is due to happen by 28 June 2023. Once the recommendation has been made, the Secretary of State will have a further three months to make their decision.

Additional changes to the Sunnica Energy Farm DCO application (December 2022)

Having further considered the key issues raised during the Examination to date, Sunnica is proposing to make additional changes to its Development Consent Order (DCO) application.

These changes are as follows:

  • Change 1: the removal of Burwell Grid Connection Extension Option 2 from the Application;
  • Change 2: the removal of Sunnica West Site B from the Application;
  • Change 3: the creation of an exclusion zone around the crater impact of the crash site of a B-50 aircraft within Sunnica East Site A from solar development, and
  • Change 4: an extension to one of the proposed archaeological mitigation areas at Sunnica West Site A.

These proposed changes are explained in this this note submitted into the Sunnica Energy Farm DCO application Examination at Deadline 3A. The Examination Library reference for this note is REP3A-037.

To assist with reading the above note, Sunnica has also prepared the below plans showing the proposed changes in relation to the wider scheme:

  • Plan 1: Before and After of Land Plans for Substation Connection Change
  • Plan 2: Before and After of Land Plans for Sunnica West Site B
  • Plan 3: Before and After of Works Plans for the Isleham B-50 crash site
  • Plan 4: Before and After of Works Plans for W04 (Sunnica West Site A)

The application to make these changes will be made on 13 January 2023 and interested parties will be able to make comments and participate in the examination once they are submitted.

If you require these documents to be supplied in hard copy, this can be provided free of charge on request via email info@sunnica.co.uk, by writing to Sunnica Energy Farm, FREEPOST SEC NEWGATE UK LOCAL or by telephone on 0808 168 7925.

Consultation on proposed changes (June-July 2022)

In November 2021, Sunnica Ltd applied for development consent to build Sunnica Energy Farm (‘the Scheme’). The Planning Inspectorate accepted the Sunnica Energy Farm Development Consent Order (DCO) application for Examination on 16 December 2021.

We are now seeking to make some changes to the proposals for connecting to the national electricity transmission system included in our application for a Development Consent Order.

Since submitting our DCO application we have received updated information from National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) about connecting the Scheme to the national electricity transmission system at the Burwell National Grid substation. We are therefore proposing to change the technical options for our grid connection included in our DCO application to take account of this new information

Before we submit our application to the Planning Inspectorate to make these changes, we are consulting on these changes between 6 June 2022 and 6 July 2022.

Our consultation booklet provides further information about the proposed changes and how to take part in the consultation.

If you would like to submit your views to Sunnica Ltd, you must do so in writing by one of the following means:

  • By email to info@sunnica.co.uk
  • By post to: FAO Sunnica Energy Farm, Freepost SEC NEWGATE UK LOCAL

Your response must be received by 23:59 on Wednesday 6 July 2022.

Any elements of responses that refer to aspects of the Scheme that are unrelated to the proposed changes will be disregarded by the project team.

We held public exhibitions for our changes consultation on Wednesday 22 June at Mandeville Hall, Burwell and on Thursday 23 June at Chippenham Village Hall.

At these exhibitions we presented illustrations of what the revised substation layouts could look like.

These illustrations are available to view below:

St Margaret’s Church, Chippenham has advised us that it is no longer able to hold copies of the changes consultation booklet. Copies remain available on request using the contact details below. Copies of the booklet are also now available at the Red Lodge Sports Pavilion, Hundred Acre Way, Red Lodge, IP28 8FQ.

For further information, or to request a USB (memory stick) containing the application documents posted to you free of charge*, please use the above contact details or contact us through our Freephone: 0808 168 7925 (9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday).

*One USB per household.

The Sunnica Energy Farm DCO application documents have been published and can be viewed on the National Infrastructure Planning website. You can view the documents by clicking on this link (please note that this will take you to the Planning Inspectorate’s National Infrastructure Planning website).

Background

The proposed Sunnica Energy Farm would be located across four sites in East Cambridgeshire and West Suffolk. If constructed, it would connect to the national electricity grid at the Burwell National Grid Substation.

The project is classified as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) by the Planning Act 2008 because it would have a generating capacity in excess of 50MW.

Sunnica Energy Farm would include both solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy storage (BESS) infrastructure. The four solar sites would be connected to each other and the Burwell National Grid Substation by an underground cable and would allow for the generation, storage, import, and export of electricity.

Our proposals represent an important opportunity to help meet the urgent national need for new, renewable, means of energy generation.

We submitted our DCO application to the Planning Inspectorate on 18 November 2021. The Planning Inspectorate accepted the application on 16 December 2021.

Prior to submitting our DCO application, we carried out two rounds of public consultation, including a statutory consultation between 22 September 2020 and 18 December 2020.

About us

Sunnica Energy Farm is being proposed by Sunnica Limited – a joint venture between two established solar developers, Tribus Energy and PS Renewables. Together the Scheme partners have assembled an experienced team with a strong track record of delivering high quality solar and energy storage developments.

Contact us

For further information, please contact us by:

Calling: 0808 168 7925 (9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday)

Emailing: info@sunnica.co.uk

Writing to us at: Sunnica Energy Farm, Freepost SEC NEWGATE UK LOCAL