Solar Power for Agriculture: Where the Electricity Goes on a UK Farm

Updated 8 October 2026 · SEO Dons Editorial

Solar power for agriculture is not one product. A dairy unit, a grain store, a broiler shed and a cold store all use electricity in different ways and at different times of day, and that timing decides how much of a solar array's output a farm can actually use. This guide maps where solar electricity goes on a UK farm, load by load, then covers how agricultural systems connect to the grid, what one consists of and how to judge whether it suits your holding. For the wider picture, start with our main guide to solar panels for agriculture.

Where solar electricity goes on a farm

Solar panels generate during daylight, most strongly around the middle of the day and in the summer months. The value of each unit depends on whether something on the farm is using power at that moment. Electricity used on site replaces a unit you would otherwise buy at your import price; anything you cannot use is exported and paid at whatever export tariff you secure, if any. So the first question for any agriculture solar system is not "how big a roof do I have?" but "what runs when the sun is up?"

The table below is a quick map. The sections after it explain each load.

Farm load	When it typically runs	Fit with solar output	Our sector guide
Milk cooling, water heating, vacuum pumps	Around each milking, plus cooling afterwards	Good for afternoon milking and daytime water heating; weaker for early-morning milking	Dairy farms
Grain drying fans, elevators, store ventilation	Harvest (summer into autumn), then storage cooling	Good during harvest drying; storage cooling often runs when outside air is cool, which can mean night	Arable farms
Poultry and pig ventilation, lighting, feeding	Continuous, with ventilation peaking in warm weather	Strong daytime baseload; summer ventilation lines up well with peak generation	Livestock farms
Cold stores, packhouses, grading lines	Cold stores around the clock; packhouses in working hours	Good for packhouse shifts; cold stores benefit most with storage or careful scheduling	Horticulture
Water pumping, remote troughs, electric fencing	Intermittent, often far from a supply	Suits small off-grid kits; a header tank or battery stores the energy	Equestrian (yards and paddocks)
Workshops, EV and electric machinery charging	Working day	Good when charging can be scheduled into daylight hours	See the sections below

Dairy: milk cooling and the parlour

Dairy is usually the most electricity-hungry enterprise on a livestock farm. AHDB states that milk cooling is typically the largest single use of electricity on a dairy farm, at over a third of consumption on its own, and that milk cooling, water heating and vacuum pumping together account for over 80% of a dairy farm's energy use. Water heating is usually the second largest consumer, at 25% to 35% of the bill.

The fit with solar depends on milking times. An early-morning milking happens before panels produce much, especially in winter, while an afternoon milking overlaps with useful generation. Two loads are easier to shift: wash water can be heated in the middle of the day, and refrigeration that keeps the bulk tank cold runs on after milking. Efficiency comes first, though. Scotland's Farm Advisory Service notes that a correctly working plate cooler can cut refrigeration energy by up to 40% and that variable speed drives on vacuum pumps can cut their energy use by up to 50%. Fixing those before sizing an array avoids paying for panels to power avoidable waste. Sizing logic: ask the installer to model the array against your half-hourly meter data for the parlour supply, so most of the output is used through the day rather than exported. More in our dairy farms guide.

Arable: grain drying and storage

On arable units the big energy demand is often heat rather than electricity. The Farm Advisory Service cites an ADAS estimate that conventional high-temperature dryers use 55 litres of oil per hectare of crop dried. Solar PV does not replace that burner fuel directly. What it can power is the electrical side: drying and conditioning fans, elevators, conveyors, augers and the controls.

The timing is mixed. Harvest drying in late summer falls in reasonable solar months, but storage cooling fans are usually set to run when the outside air is cool enough to bring grain temperature down, which often means overnight. A grain store with a long, unshaded roof can host a large array, yet the farm may still export a high share of the output unless other daytime loads share the same supply. The same source notes that setting dryers up to the right humidity could save up to 40% of drying energy, which again is worth doing before any solar sizing. Sizing logic: size against the whole site's daytime demand across the year, not the harvest peak alone. See our arable farms guide.

Poultry and pigs: ventilation, heating and lighting

Intensive livestock housing runs fans, lights, feeders and controls more or less continuously, which gives a steady daytime baseload that solar output can feed into. The Farm Advisory Service makes the specific point that solar PV often correlates well with ventilation needs, because peak solar output comes on summer days when ventilation and cooling requirements are likely to be higher.

Heat is a different matter. The same guidance notes that many pig and poultry sheds are heated with LPG or kerosene, and chicks can need temperatures above 30°C. Solar PV only displaces that fuel if the heating is electric, for example through heat pumps or heat pads. Sizing logic: start from the shed's minimum daytime demand in spring and autumn, when ventilation is lower, so the array is not oversized for the months with the most sun. Our livestock farms guide covers housing in more detail.

Horticulture: cold stores and packhouses

Potato and fruit cold stores run refrigeration around the clock, and the Farm Advisory Service notes that energy can account for up to 50% of a cold store's total operating costs. Packhouses, grading lines and chillers mostly run in working hours, which lines up well with solar generation. The same guidance suggests "building cold" when lower-priced electricity is available, and a well-insulated store can be pulled down in temperature during the sunniest part of the day so that it coasts for longer overnight. Glasshouse heating is a separate, mostly heat-based load that solar PV does not meet directly. Sizing logic: look at packhouse shift patterns and whether the store's control system can shift cooling into daylight. See our horticulture guide.

Water pumping, remote troughs and electric fencing

Not every agri solar system is a large roof array. Small stand-alone kits are common where there is no mains supply: a panel and pump lifting water from a borehole, spring or watercourse to a header tank or trough, or a panel and battery keeping an electric fence energiser charged. Because these are not connected to the distribution network, they avoid the grid connection process entirely. A tank is a simple form of energy storage: pump when the sun shines and let gravity supply the stock overnight. Check any abstraction rules for the water source with the relevant environment regulator before relying on it. Equestrian yards and paddocks often use the same approach; see our equestrian guide.

Workshops and farm EV or machinery charging

Workshops (welders, compressors, pressure washers) and charging for electric vehicles, quad bikes, UTVs and battery telehandlers are flexible daytime loads. Charging in particular can often be scheduled into daylight hours, which makes it one of the easiest ways to raise the share of solar output used on site. If you plan to electrify vehicles or machinery over the next few years, tell the installer so the array, inverter and grid application allow for it.

Batteries: shifting solar into evening loads

A battery stores midday surplus and releases it later, for example to the evening milking, night ventilation or cold-store refrigeration. It is most useful where a farm exports a lot in the middle of the day and imports heavily in the evening. It adds cost and must be included in the connection application to the network operator, so ask for a quote with and without storage and compare how much extra self-use each option delivers on your own meter data.

Grid-tied, off-grid and hybrid systems

There are three broad ways to set up an agricultural solar system:

Grid-tied: the array feeds the farm's existing supply, with the grid covering any shortfall and taking any surplus. This is the usual setup for roof and ground arrays serving farm buildings.
Off-grid: a stand-alone system with its own battery, used where there is no supply, such as remote pumps, troughs, fencing or a field shelter.
Hybrid: a grid-tied system with a battery, so surplus is stored first and exported only when the battery is full.

Grid-tied and hybrid systems need the distribution network operator's (DNO) involvement. Under the Energy Networks Association's G98 process, fully type-tested equipment up to 16 A per phase, about 3.68 kW on a single phase, can be installed and then notified within 28 days of commissioning. Anything above that, or that does not meet G98, falls under G99, which means applying to the DNO and getting its answer before you connect. On three-phase, 16 A per phase works out at roughly 11 kW in total, so almost every farm system goes through G99.

Where the local network has limited capacity, the DNO may offer a connection with an export limit. National Grid describes customer limitation schemes, which measure current at the exit point and restrict generation output or adjust demand so the agreed export or import capacity is not exceeded; they must comply with ENA Engineering Recommendation G100. An export limit can let a project go ahead without network reinforcement, and it makes on-site use and batteries more important.

What an agricultural photovoltaic system consists of

Component	What it does	What to ask about
Modules (panels)	Turn sunlight into DC electricity	Product and performance warranties, and suitability for dusty livestock buildings
Inverters	Convert DC to AC at the farm's supply voltage	Single or three-phase, number of units, location away from dust and heat, and ENA type-test listing
Mounting	Fixes panels to roof sheets, purlins or a ground frame	Roof structural check, and the condition of the roof sheets (panels should not go on asbestos-cement sheeting)
Cabling, isolators, protection	Carry power safely and allow shutdown	Cable routes around livestock and machinery, and fire-safety layout
Metering and monitoring	Record generation, import and export	A meter capable of half-hourly export readings if you want Smart Export Guarantee payments
Export limitation (if required)	Keeps export within the DNO's agreed capacity	Whether the G99 offer includes a limit, and how much output that could curtail
Battery (optional)	Stores surplus for later use	Usable capacity against your evening load, and inclusion in the DNO application

Two paperwork points sit alongside the hardware. To be paid for export under the Smart Export Guarantee, Ofgem's guidance requires MCS certification for solar installations up to 50 kW; between 50 kW and 5 MW, systems go through Ofgem's ROO-FIT process instead. On planning in England, roof-mounted solar on non-domestic buildings, including farm buildings, is permitted development under Part 14 Class J of the General Permitted Development Order with no capacity cap. Systems above 50 kW need prior approval from the local planning authority on design and external appearance, particularly glare. Class J does not apply to listed buildings, buildings within the curtilage of a listed building, or scheduled monuments, panels must not stand more than 0.2 m proud of a pitched roof or more than 1 m above a flat roof, and they must sit at least 1 m from the roof edge. Ground-mounted farm arrays should be treated as needing full planning permission; our ground-mount vs rooftop guide compares the two.

How to judge whether solar suits your farm

Three checks do most of the work before you ask anyone for a quote.

Daytime load share. Download half-hourly consumption data from your supplier for at least a full year, per supply if the farm has several meters. The more of your consumption that falls between mid-morning and late afternoon, especially from April to September, the more of the array's output you will use yourself. Buildings on separate supplies cannot share one array's output without changes to the wiring and metering.
Roofs. Look for large, unshaded roofs facing south or east-west, with sound sheets and a structure that can carry the extra load. Asbestos-cement roofs usually need replacing before panels go on, which changes the economics. A roof close to the main supply keeps cable runs and costs down.
Grid headroom. Rural networks are often thin. The G99 response may come back with reinforcement costs or an export limit, so ask for the connection position early rather than after design work is finished.

If the answer is a small daytime load and a large area of land, using the panels to power the farm may not be the right model. Some landowners instead lease land to a developer; our guides to solar panels on farmland, the solar farm land lease guide and agricultural land classification for solar cover that route. Agrivoltaics, where panels are raised or spaced so grazing or cropping carries on beneath them, is a further option for some holdings; it has its own design and planning questions, which we set out in our agrivoltaics guide. For a structured view of the numbers, read is solar worth it for farms and try the savings calculator with your own consumption. Typical system prices are on our cost page.

Funding and tax relief

For most farm businesses the main support is tax relief rather than a grant. HMRC designates all capital expenditure on solar panels as special rate expenditure. The Annual Investment Allowance gives 100% relief in the first year on qualifying plant and machinery up to £1 million a year, and is available to sole traders, partnerships of individuals and companies. Above that, companies can claim a 50% first-year allowance on special rate assets; full expensing applies only to main rate assets, so it does not cover solar. Take advice from your accountant on how this applies to your business structure.

On grants, the Improving Farm Productivity round 2 solar theme (grants of £15,000 to £100,000 for rooftop solar) closed to full applications on 31 July 2025, and at the time of writing no capital grant for farm solar is open in England. Farms in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland should check current devolved schemes, none of which pays for solar panels at the time of writing. Our grants and funding guide is kept up to date with what is open.

Next steps

Start with your half-hourly meter data and a list of the loads described above, then compare the numbers with our cost guide and savings calculator. When you are ready, send an enquiry through the form below. SEO Dons, which publishes this site, passes it to an installer covering your area; that installer reviews your consumption, surveys the buildings, handles the DNO application and quotes. Before you sign, check the installer's MCS certificate on the MCS register if your system is 50 kW or smaller, and ask for the output and self-use figures to be based on your own meter data.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to tell the DNO about a small off-grid solar pump or fence energiser?

G98 and G99 cover generation connected to the distribution network. A genuinely stand-alone kit with its own battery, with no connection to the farm's mains supply, does not go through that process. If you later wire it into a building on the mains, it becomes a grid-connected system and the normal rules apply.

Do I need an MCS-certified installer for a farm solar system?

MCS is not a legal requirement for a commercial installation, but Ofgem's Smart Export Guarantee guidance requires MCS certification for solar installations up to 50 kW if you want to be paid for exported electricity. Systems between 50 kW and 5 MW use Ofgem's ROO-FIT accreditation instead. For a system of 50 kW or less, check the installer's certificate on the MCS register.

Can I get paid for the electricity my farm exports?

Yes. Under the Smart Export Guarantee, electricity suppliers with at least 150,000 domestic customers must offer an export tariff to eligible solar generators up to 5 MW. Rates and terms vary between suppliers, so compare offers, and remember that the export rate you are offered may be quite different from what you pay to import.

Will panels work on an east or west facing shed roof?

Yes. An east-west layout produces less at midday than a south-facing roof but spreads generation across the morning and afternoon, which can suit a farm with loads at both ends of the working day. Ask the installer to model both orientations against your own meter data before choosing.

Can a tenant farmer put solar panels on the buildings they rent?

Usually only with the landlord's written consent, because panels are fixed to the landlord's buildings and can affect the tenancy. Check your tenancy agreement first, agree who owns and maintains the system and what happens at the end of the tenancy, and take independent advice from a land agent or solicitor.

Sources

Get a free solar panels for agriculture quote

1. Tell us about the holding — buildings, land and rough annual electricity spend.
2. We pass your enquiry on to an installer covering your area. No obligation.
3. Check before you sign — look the installer up on the MCS and RECC registers and compare any quote with our cost guide.