Sheep Grazing Under Solar Panels: What UK Landowners Should Agree First

Grazing sheep on a solar site is the most common answer to the food-versus-energy objection, and it is the simplest form of agrivoltaics to deliver. It is also easy to promise in a planning application and hard to enforce afterwards, so the detail matters. This guide sets out what is established, what is still modelled, and what a landowner should settle before agreeing to dual use. It is published by an independent publisher and does not act for landowners; take advice from a land agent and a solicitor before you sign.

What is established

The UK Solar Roadmap notes that many projects are designed for continued livestock grazing, and Defra’s Land Use Framework expects some land used for renewables to stay in food production, usually through sheep grazing. Planning Practice Guidance asks councils to consider whether a scheme allows continued agricultural use. Our guide to solar panels on farmland sets out those sources in full. Grazing can also replace mowing and herbicide, and avoids the risk of mowers or thrown stones damaging panels.

What the evidence does and does not show

The most-cited Great Britain study is the University of Sheffield-led analysis by Neesham-McTiernan, Randle-Boggis, Buckley and Hartley in Applied Energy, volume 385 (2025). It models the potential for agrivoltaics across Great Britain and estimates 338 TWh a year of theoretical generation while keeping output from 20,272 km² of high-grade farmland. It is a spatial, map-based assessment, not a trial of grazing yields, and the co-author Dr Richard Randle-Boggis has said that the next step should be field experiments to test how the systems perform. Our agrivoltaics guide covers the research in more detail.

Practical grazing evidence in the UK comes mostly from planning documents. A grazing feasibility study filed with a nationally significant solar application (Planning Inspectorate reference EN010143, 2023) concluded that most sheep, apart from lambing ewes, could be grazed under the panels, and noted that shepherding at lambing time would likely be hindered by the panels. A North Lincolnshire Council response to examining-authority questions on another scheme (EN010101) suggested planning should include fallback maintenance arrangements in case sheep grazing proves not to be viable. Take both as indications of what councils and applicants expect, not as a standard.

What grazing arrangements look like commercially

Farmers Weekly reported in September 2022 that The Sheep Solution, a company that links energy firms with flock owners, was expanding from France and Belgium into the UK, with initial sites of 10 hectares at Gwithian in Cornwall and 56 hectares in County Durham. It aimed for contracts of three to five years, expected flock owners to be responsible for shepherding and to hold insurance covering damage to the site caused by sheep, and said payments depend on site size and handling needs. The only payment benchmark in the article is the French average of about €10,000 (£9,000) per farmer; no UK per-head or per-acre rate was given. That is a 2022 report about one intermediary, so treat it as an example of structure rather than a price.

Terms to settle in the option and lease

Question	Why it matters
Is grazing a right in the lease, or a licence?	A licence can be ended. Grazing does not restore Agricultural Property Relief on the let land, because the solar company is the occupier
Who pays for fencing, water and handling facilities?	Panels and cables change how stock are gathered; portable handling equipment and water points are part of the cost
What happens to grazing during construction and maintenance?	You may need to move stock and lose a season; agree who bears the cost
Who insures damage to the site caused by sheep?	Flock owners have been expected to hold cover; settle it in writing
What if grazing stops being viable?	Councils have asked for fallback maintenance; agree what happens to your rights
Does any environmental scheme interact with the land?	The Sustainable Farming Incentive does not pay for panels; ask the Rural Payments Agency how land under panels is treated

The surrounding deal terms (option fee, longstop date, indexation, decommissioning security) are in our solar farm land lease guide. If you keep stock, our livestock farms page covers the on-farm side of solar for beef, sheep, pig and poultry units. Fencing is a security and a livestock question: see solar farm security, fencing and your lease.

If you own the array

With your own ground-mounted array you control the grazing arrangement, which makes dual use easier to deliver. The array still needs planning permission, and policy will ask whether it allows continued agricultural use; see planning permission for ground-mounted solar on farmland. Whether grazing is worth the added design and management cost against simple mowing is a site decision.

Next steps

Work out what your acreage could host with the solar farm land calculator, then take the grazing questions above to a land agent before you reply to a developer.

Frequently asked questions

Can sheep graze under solar panels in the UK?

Yes. Sheep grazing around and beneath ground-mounted solar is the established form of dual use. UK planning documents suggest most sheep, apart from lambing ewes, can be grazed under panels, though shepherding at lambing time is harder.

Do solar farms pay farmers to graze sheep?

Arrangements vary. A 2022 Farmers Weekly report on one intermediary said payments depend on site size and handling needs and gave no UK per-head rate; the only benchmark was an average of about €10,000 per farmer in France. Contracts of three to five years, with flock owners responsible for shepherding and insurance, were described.

Does grazing under solar panels protect inheritance tax relief?

Not on land let to a solar company. Agricultural Property Relief depends on the land being occupied for agriculture, and the solar company is the occupier of leased land, so take advice from an agricultural tax specialist before signing an option.

Sources

• Neesham-McTiernan, Randle-Boggis, Buckley, Hartley, Applied Energy vol. 385 (2025), doi 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.125527: 338 TWh/yr theoretical; 20,272 km2 of high-grade farmland
• University of Sheffield, 26 February 2025: next step should be field experiments (Dr Richard Randle-Boggis)
• Farmers Weekly, September 2022: The Sheep Solution UK expansion; 3-5 year contracts; flock-owner shepherding and insurance
• Planning Inspectorate project documents: EN010143 grazing feasibility study (2023); EN010101 North Lincolnshire Council response
• Land Use Framework for England (March 2026)
• UK Solar Roadmap (June 2025)