‘Fire risk’ from huge battery compounds at Sunnica’s proposed 2,800-acre solar farm alarms villagers
Concerns over the risk of fire from the battery compounds at Sunnica’s proposed 1,130-hectare (2,792-acre) solar farm on the Cambridgeshire-Suffolk border were expressed at a heated meeting with villagers.
The concerns follow an academic study from leading physicists last year that warned grid-scale battery energy storage systems are capable of “storing electrochemical energy many hundreds of tons of TNT equivalent, and several times the energy released in the August 2020 Beirut explosion”.
Residents have until March 17 to share their views on the controversial plans at www.infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk, ahead of the Planning Inspectorate examining them this spring.
And more than 100 people heard directly from Sunnica’s project director Luke Murray last Wednesday evening at Red Lodge pavilion.
He explained the phases of the project, the locations of three battery compounds and decommissioning plans and talked about the importance of tackling climate change and Britain generating its own energy at a time when the war in Ukraine has shone the spotlight even more brightly on the sources of power.
Emotions ran high though when members of the public quizzed Mr Murray and Nigel Chalmers, representing infrastructure and construction company AECON, which carried out the environmental impact assessment for the project.
Battery safety was a key issue and was discussed at length, with one person asking about evacuation areas and plans in the event of a fire.
Mr Chalmers said: “We don’t have an evacuation area defined as we believe our systems are effective and in the event of a fire our plans have shown the impact on air quality and how that would disperse and our modelling has shown that air quality levels would be within the Public Health England guidelines of what is acceptable.”
Audience members pressed for details on the types and sizes of the batteries used but were rebuffed by Mr Murray, who said: “What we’ve aimed to do is to keep the technology type agnostic.”
Mr Murray was pressed by an audience member for details on the air quality calculations in the event of a fire, and the fact that Sunnica must know what size and type of battery they are using in order to make any calculations
“Can I take that away and get back to you?” asked Mr Murray.
Undeterred, another person asked: “It’s a simple question, can we see the plan?”
Mr Murray responded: “The answer is no. We've made an indicative plan. We’ve made assumptions.
“The technology is changing and we are permitting the areas and we are doing that within the parameters we've set out. That's why I'm avoiding giving you numbers.”
At one point an audience member had to be held back as he approached the front of the room while raising his voice and told Mr Murray, who had risen from his chair and backed away, that “these people are tired of your lot”.
A report last June by Dr Edmund Fordham, of the Institute of Physics, Dr Wade Allison, of Oxford University, and Prof Sir David Melville, of the University of Kent, warned the government and Health and Safety Executive must take the threat from grid-scale battery storage systems more seriously.
“Li-ion batteries can fail by ‘thermal runaway’ where overheating in a single faulty cell can propagate to neighbours with energy releases popularly known as ‘battery fires’,” they wrote. “These are not strictly ‘fires’ at all, requiring no oxygen to propagate. They are uncontrollable except by extravagant water cooling.
“They evolve toxic gases such as hydrogen fluoride (HF) and highly inflammable gases including hydrogen (H2), methane (CH4), eEthylene (C2H4) and carbon monoxide (CO). These in turn may cause further explosions or fires upon ignition. The chemical energy then released can be up to 20 times the stored electrochemical energy.”
In its earlier consultation documents, Sunnica addressed the issue of fire risk, stating: “We take the risk of a potential fire very seriously. Each container would be isolated and would contain an automatic fire control system. If approved, the scheme would be subject to a battery fire safety plan.”
Other points raised at last Wednesday’s meeting included the loss of agricultural land, with some pointing out that while Sunnica had made the point that Britain needed to be more self-sufficient in terms of energy, the same logic could be applied to food.
Decommissioning plans were outlined at the meeting and gave a 40-year lifespan to the energy farm, but some of those present said the bill could fall at the feet of local councils further down the line.
The Sunnica energy farm would stretch across four sites, north of Newmarket, near Isleham, Freckenham, Worlington, Chippenham, Kennett and Snailwell, and connect to the national electricity grid at the Burwell National Grid substation.
Cambridgeshire County Council has expressed its concerns over the plans.
A protest march against the plans is to take place on March 20, setting off at 9am from Sainsbury’s lower car park on Recreation Way in Mildenhall.
The Planning Inspectorate is due to examine the plans for six months, before making a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, who will make a final decision in spring 2023.
Additional reporting: Paul Brackley
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