‘If you tried to find the most inappropriate place in East Anglia to put a solar panel farm, this would be it’ local farmer
We support solar energy as a principle. However, we believe that solar panel farms should be located on brownfield sites and roof tops, and not on good quality farmland in areas of outstanding beauty. Below are details of some of the reasons that we object to the Boxted Solar Panel Farm proposal.
The visual impact would be severe. Because the proposed solar farm is on a hill, it is visible from up to two miles away. No amount of “mitigation“ (such as growing trees) will diminish the visual impact. The license term is for 45 years which means the beautiful views in this treasured valley will be severely impacted for a whole generation. This proposal is the industrialisation of our countryside landscape with 100 acres of solar panels and 2.4 metre high security fences with CCTV cameras. This valley has been enjoyed by local residents, farmers, walkers, cyclists, horse-riders and those driving on our country roads for hundreds of years. We should be preserving our natural environment for our children and grand-children.
Babergh Planning Officer – ‘it is highly probable that the proposal will have substantial visual impact on the character and appearance of the area’
Babergh Council Place Services- ‘we do have major concerns on the visual and landscape impact’
The loss of 100 acres of productive agricultural land has a significant impact. There are many more efficient ways of generating green energy, but the only way to grow our own food in this country is to plant it on good agricultural land. Food security is at least as important as energy security (or even more important) and we should be using our productive agricultural land to make food and not electricity.
We estimate that 100 acres of land can produce:
Solar panels can be relocated, good quality agricultural land cannot be.
Due to the undisturbed nature of the area, the valley is home to an amazing range of natural wildlife – otters, badgers, deer, bats, field mice, kites, egrets, egyptian geese, crested newts, buzzards etc etc. Many live in the three ancient medieval woodlands (all on English Nature’s inventory of Ancient Woodlands) that will be cut off by this proposal, thus preventing the natural migration of wildlife from the valley ridges down to the river.
Their route will be blocked by miles of 2.4m high fences. This will severely affect the environmental stability of the region.
There is increasing evidence that solar panels affect the land on which they are sitting over the years. The land under the solar panels is deprived of water and light. Over 45 years, this affects the constitution of the ground including the make-up of minerals, and the insects and microbes that are essential for healthy soil structure. There are concerns that this may be very long-lasting (or even permanent) making the land unable to sustain useful agriculture for decades after the panels are removed.
Under the proposal, electricity produced will be sold to the National Grid and not used locally. We believe that solar panels should be used locally by putting the solar panels on roofs of buildings such as schools, shopping centres, factories and storage buildings or on brownfield sites, where the electricity produced can be used locally and not exported to the National Grid.
This would save on energy lost during transmission to the National Grid – estimated to be 8% of energy generated.
Additionally, electricity generated by solar power needs to be used straight away as it can’t be stored unless using lithium battery storage. Lithium battery storage is extremely expensive and creates CO2 emissions, negating the benefit of using solar power.
The average efficiency of solar energy in England is 10% (latest figures published in April 2023). This means that 90% of the time solar panels are not making electricity. The efficiency of off-shore wind turbines is much higher (almost 60% efficiency). As 80% of the energy in this country is used to heat our homes in winter and in the dark, solar, which needs to be used straight away and not stored, does not contribute anything to this. For solar panels to be most efficient, they need to be facing south, so it makes no sense positioning them on a North-east facing slope. We estimate that this site will waste 25% more land than if sited on flat or south-facing slopes.
Historic England lists fifteen listed buildings in the area. This includes the Grade 1 listed Boxted Church, the moated grade 2* listed Boxted Hall and the Grade 2 listed Moorhouse. The later would be surrounded on three sides by solar panels. Babergh Council’s Place Services stresses the importance of the setting of heritage assets and states ‘the impact on its [a heritage asset] setting would be a material consideration’.
There are laws and national and local planning guidelines in place to preserve our heritage assets and their settings and we believe this proposal breaks these laws and planning guidelines.
There is absolutely no benefit to the locals in this proposal.
This proposed solar panel farm will export its energy to the national grid. It will not be used locally. In fact, the county of Suffolk is a net exporter of electricity so it would not benefit any of Suffolk.
The locals will however be very negatively impacted from the development…
Where one succeeds, others follow.
There has been an alarming increase in solar farm proposals being put forward in the area – the map below shows seven sites either in operation, under construction or being proposed within a four mile local radius.
These sites fall into two different District council areas and two different counties – and no one has oversight of the developing situation. Local councils can only make planning decisions based on the merits of each one as presented to them. This means that no one is assessing the cumulative impact on landscape and environment.
This is a huge industrialisation of our beautiful, natural, food producing landscape. We need to stop this from happening.
We currently have over 500 signatures in opposition to the proposal (300 online, 200 on paper and increasing all the time).
Join us in opposing the Boxted Solar Panel Farm proposal
Sign the petition
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Suffolk Preservation Society www.suffolksociety.org
Solar Campaign Alliance www.solarcampaignalliance.info
CPRE Campaign to Protect Rural England www.cpre.org.uk
CARE Suffolk Community Alliance for a Rural Environment www.caresuffolk.org