Sutton St Edmunds villagers can have their say on early designs of massive solar farm

Residents of Sutton St Edmunds will be able to have their say on early designs of a massive solar farm which is due to be built on fields surrounding a number of villages.

Meridian Solar Farm wants to build the 750 megawatts solar farm over 1,100 hectares on land which runs between Sutton St Edmunds and Gedney Hill, Shepeau Stow and Crowland.

The firm, which is a subsidiary of Downing Renewable Developments (DRD), launched its stage two consultation on the proposal - which will be decided on by a Government minister and not local planners - on April 24.

It is due to last for six weeks.

Along with the solar panels, the application will also include 12 to 13km of overhead lines, which are due to connect into the proposed National Grid substation in Weston Marsh, along with other infrastructure such as battery storage systems and inter-array connections to link together the land parcels where the solar panels are located.

Public consultation sessions will be held in Sutton St Edmund, as well as in Crowland and Weston, in May.

David Vernon, head of nationally significant infrastructure projects at DRD, said: “Since we introduced Meridian Solar last summer, we have been working hard to develop a design based on the early feedback received and our ongoing environmental, technical and engineering assessments.

“We’re inviting the public to learn more about and provide feedback on our developed proposals, which is important to help us shape our final designs.

“We encourage anyone with an interest in Meridian Solar to take part in the consultation.”

This latest consultation provides an opportunity to have your say on the initial design before a Development Consent Order application is submitted to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero towards the end of 2025.

The Sutton St Edmunds public consultation events will be held at the village hall on Saturday, May 10, 10.30am – 4.30pm.

Developers also plan to upload two online information presentations on the Meridian Solar website during the consultation period, which ends on June 8.

The first presentation will provide an overview of the proposals and where to find out more information, while the second will be uploaded after the consultation events to provide a summary of the main questions and responses.

INFORMATION FROM MERIDIAN SOLAR FARM

An information booklet issued as part of the consultation says construction work could start in 2027 with the build expected to take 24 to 36 months, with the site operational sometime in 2029.

It also outlines that around £500,000 a year could be made available for community benefit and that the development could help the ‘recovery’ of topsoil on the agricultural land.

The document states: “Meridian Solar has the potential to accelerate the UK’s transition to net zero and make a significant contribution towards achieving the government’s targets, while also increasing national energy security at a time of both rising energy bills and the increasing urgency to tackle the climate emergency.”

The brochure also gives its response to concerns raised in the first round of consultation which includes traffic, health and safety, visual impact and agriculture.

It states that surveys of the four sites found a mixture of Grades 1, 2 and 3 but states that the solar farm will not ‘degrade’ soil quality.

The information booklet states: “Instead, during the operation of the scheme, solar PV areas will remain under a grass cover which will facilitate a recovery of topsoil organic matter.”

Concerns were also raised about building a solar farm in a flood risk area, but the firm says it has been in consultation with the Environment Agency, along with undertaking its own flooding modelling.

It goes onto say: “There is a precedent for solar farms being developed in areas prone to flooding. Solar farms are classified as essential national infrastructure and can therefore be developed within typically wetter landscapes, subject to assessments carried out.”

The developers also state the panels could be installed at a height of 5.7m above ground in a ‘worst case scenario’ in flood-prone areas, but that a maximum of 4.25m would be more ‘realistic’.

This information booklet also states that the infrastructure on the site could include transformers, inverters and switchgear along with on-site cabling and battery storage.

Developers have still to decide on whether to use overhead lines or underground cables to link all the parcels of land together.