Solar Panels for Farms

Agricultural businesses are uniquely positioned to benefit from solar. Farms combine three things that make them outstanding solar candidates: large roof areas on barns and agricultural buildings, high year-round electricity consumption, and available land for ground-mounted arrays.

Modern farming carries a heavy electrical load. Refrigeration for dairy and produce storage, milking-parlour equipment, grain-drying facilities, ventilation fans and irrigation pumps all draw substantial power — and most of it during daylight hours, when panels generate their maximum output. That synchronisation between when you generate and when you consume is what makes farm solar pay back so quickly: the more of your own generation you use directly, the better the return.

Large barn roofs and storage sheds make ideal mounting surfaces. These structures typically have strong, south-facing pitches with little shading, and many can accommodate anything from a 50kW system up to 250kW or more. Beyond the immediate savings, solar lets a farm diversify its income: through the Smart Export Guarantee you sell surplus electricity back to the grid, creating a revenue stream that is independent of volatile commodity and livestock markets. Installations can also improve your farm's Environmental Performance Certificate rating and support eligibility for certain agricultural schemes. This page covers farm-specific systems; for our wider grant-funded agricultural offer see agricultural solar.

We tailor the system to your buildings, land and energy needs:

Barn-mounted rooftop solar — the most common and most popular option. It uses your existing barn and shed roofs to generate clean energy without sacrificing any productive farmland, and usually falls under permitted development.

Ground-mounted solar arrays — large-capacity installations on agricultural land, ideal for farms with available space and high energy requirements. These are often combined with continued grazing beneath the panels. See our dedicated ground-mounted solar service.

Solar canopies — elevated panels over yards, parking areas or livestock housing that provide shelter while generating electricity, giving you dual use of the same footprint.

Solar-powered irrigation — dedicated systems that run irrigation pumps and water-management equipment, well suited to remote field locations and capable of operating off-grid.

Most farms start with the barn roof and expand to ground-mount or canopies as loads grow. We model each option against your consumption before recommending a layout.

Investment, generation and payback scale with system size. The figures below are typical Midlands installations; final pricing depends on site conditions, roof type and specification.

Small farm — 50kW system. Installation £40,000-£55,000, around 42,500 kWh generated a year, annual savings of £8,000-£12,000, and a 5-7 year payback. Suits small mixed farms and a typical single barn-roof installation covering basic operations.

Medium farm — 100kW system. Installation £70,000-£100,000, roughly 85,000 kWh a year, annual savings of £15,000-£25,000, and a 4-6 year payback. Ideal for dairy and arable farms, often spread across multiple buildings.

Large farm — 250kW+ system. Installation £150,000-£200,000+, generating 212,500+ kWh a year, annual savings of £30,000-£50,000+, and a 4-5 year payback. Suited to commercial farming operations, frequently a combination of roof and ground-mounted arrays for maximum return.

Adding battery storage lets you shift surplus generation into evening and early-morning peaks — particularly valuable for twice-daily milking. See our battery storage and commercial battery storage options.

Dedicated solar grants are limited, but several routes improve farm solar economics.

Annual Investment Allowance — claim 100% of qualifying solar capital expenditure against your farm's taxable profits in the year of purchase, a substantial up-front tax saving.

Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) — sell excess electricity back to the grid for a reliable income stream that is independent of agricultural markets.

Farm-sector grants — schemes such as the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) and the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) can support renewable-energy and energy-efficiency measures; eligibility and stacking change frequently, so we cover them on our broader agricultural solar page and help you identify qualifying components.

Agrivoltaics — graze sheep and other livestock beneath elevated ground-mounted panels, maintaining dual land productivity while generating clean energy. Demonstrating continued agricultural use also strengthens planning applications.

Together these mean a farm solar system is rarely just an energy saving — it is a tax-efficient capital investment that also generates income and protects your cost base against future electricity price rises.

Rooftop solar is usually permitted development. Most barn and agricultural-building installations don't require planning permission. Systems up to 1MW on non-domestic buildings typically qualify, provided the panels don't protrude more than 200mm from the roof surface, the building sits within the farm curtilage, and the panels are removed when no longer needed.

Ground-mounted arrays generally do require planning. Applications on agricultural land must address visual impact and, where possible, demonstrate the land will remain in agricultural use. The planning process typically takes 8-13 weeks.

Agricultural land classification matters. Best and Most Versatile land (Grades 1, 2 and 3a) receives particular scrutiny; designing in continued agricultural use through agrivoltaics can strengthen an application.

AONB, Green Belt and conservation areas carry additional restrictions, and rooftop installations are generally more acceptable than ground-mounted arrays in these designated areas. We provide full planning support as standard — site assessments, documentation and liaison with local planning authorities — to keep approvals running smoothly. Book a free solar survey and we'll confirm exactly what applies to your site.

A 200-acre mixed dairy farm producing 1.5 million litres of milk a year faced rising electricity costs for refrigeration, milking equipment and water heating. Its large south-facing barn roof provided an ideal location for solar.

We installed a 100kW system of 288 panels on the barn roof for an installation cost of £85,000, completed in three weeks while working around the farm's milking schedule so not a single collection was missed.

The results: the system generates around 85,000 kWh a year at roughly 75% self-consumption, delivering £14,500 in annual energy savings plus around £850 of SEG export income, for a payback of about 5.5 years. The farm owner reported cutting electricity bills by over 60%.

This is a typical barn-roof outcome for a mid-sized Midlands dairy. We serve arable and dairy farms across Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire — including upland and hill farms where we optimise the design for challenging terrain and variable solar exposure. For larger mixed sites we often combine a barn-roof system with commercial solar capacity across additional buildings.