Welcome to our website detailing our proposals for Sunnica Energy Farm

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Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero grants development consent for Sunnica Energy Farm (July 2024)

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.

All relevant documents, including the DCO as made, the Secretary of State’s Decision Letter, the Statement of Reasons and Book of Reference and all other application/ examination documents are available on the project-dedicated webpage of the Planning Inspectorate website linked here.

A Section 134(7) notice can be read here.

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:

• Sunnica West Substation Compound Elevation
• Sunnica West Substation Compound Layout Plan
• Sunnica East Site A Substation Compound Elevation
• Sunnica East Site B Substation Compound Layout Plan
• Sunnica East Site B Substation Compound Elevation

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).