Background
Sudbury, Suffolk, the home of famous painter, Thomas Gainsborough, will soon become a location of great renewable advance. This comes as the council discusses the approval of a solar farm in the Chilton industrial state area, outskirts of Sudbury town.
The project in question was submitted in June 2022, by JCS Hi-Torque, a manufacturer company based at the Chilton industrial estate in Sudbury, which specialises in equipment for industrial applications [1]. JCS Hi-Torque currently owns a factory on the Chilton site, which it hopes to develop a solar farm on, to make the firm almost self-sufficient.
Figure 1: Sudbury, Suffolk [5]
The Solar Farm Project
The project would include 1,764 panels, capable of producing 803 MWh (megawatt hour), per year, on vacant land adjacent to the factory. The initial date for the decision was scheduled to be by the end of July 2022 [2], which was meant to be discussed during the August 10 planning committee – unfortunately this meeting was cut short, due to discussions regarding the Churchill Retirement Living’s controversial Belle Vue Park retirement home plans [3].
Before the talks on the solar farm project were curtailed however, the committee report, which recommended approval of the project at the Babergh planning committee on Wed 10th August, states that:
“The proposed solar park has been designed by JCS Hi-Torque Ltd. to allow the business to be nearly self-sufficient in energy production, protecting the business from high energy costs and fluctuations of electricity prices.
This would significantly improve the long-term prospects of the business and help protect 88 skilled jobs.
It would also significantly lower the carbon footprint of the business and allow the staff to have the benefit of electric car charging which, coupled with an electric car leasing scheme, would help employees lower their commuting costs.” [3]
Other Great News for Sudbury
In other great news for Sudbury, there is an innovative initiative underway, which aims to address the affordable housing crisis.
Habitat For Humanity Ontario Gateway North recently reported their partnership to plan and develop ‘cost-effective homes’, which will be referred to as the ‘Our House/Notre Maison’ initiative. Various spokespeople who make up the partnership have voiced their views on the initiative. Starting off with the director of community partnerships with Habitat for Humanity stating:
“That’s the idea here, is to put them out properly, community input and put them on a mass scale to the crisis that is before us.”
Another partner of the plan is a Sudbury firm 3rdLine.Studiom which will be working on developing the affordable, accessible, adaptable, and custom modular homes in the Nickel City. The co-owner of the firm advised…
“Orientation, solar, those types of things. We are scratching the surface on a lot of different areas but always cognizant that these have to be affordable homes. We are not here to design something that is out of reach. We really want to bring that back to earth for example.” [4]
Lastly, College Boreal is the final partner we will discuss in this article, they specify that their focus is on making homeownership a reality, with the main plan being for the Sudbury modular home designs to be used in other northern communities.
The president of the college, Daniel Giroux, stated that:
“College Boreal has multiple campuses in the north, from Hearst, Kapuskasing, Timmins and Sudbury,” said Daniel Giroux, the president of the college. One of the major challenges, especially when you are trying to recruit students from outside of northern Ontario, is the lack of affordable housing. So, it is a major, major issue. That part is well founded here and now, it’s time to really accelerate this. There is lots of funding opportunities, there is lots of collaborative opportunities and there is lots of need.” [4]
The community partners said there are consultations going on with diverse community groups, and its hoped design concepts of affordable modular homes will be put forward in the next month (September 2022). [4]
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References
[1] Lown, T. (3 August 2022), Sudbury solar farm plans set for green light, East Anglian Daily Times.
[2] Lown, T. (16 June 2022), Plans for solar park in Suffolk town submitted, East Anglian Daily Times.
[3] Lown, T. (25 August 2022), Sudbury solar park plans approved, East Anglian Daily Times.
[4] Everson, Al. (25 August 2022), Affordable modular home project aims to make northern homeownership a reality, Northern Ontario.
[5] Geographer (October 2013), Sudbury, Suffolk. Accessed via Wiki Media: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walnut_Tree_Lane_%5E_The_Mill_Hotel_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3706649.jpg
