Arable Farms: Solar panels for dairy farms

Why arable ground attached to a dairy is a powerful place for solar

Many dairy farms are mixed holdings that also crop a good acreage, whether that is forage maize and wholecrop grown for the herd or combinable crops sold off the farm, and that arable side opens up solar options the dairy buildings alone cannot. You have large grain store and machinery shed roofs, you often have marginal corners that crop poorly, and you have a seasonal load that spikes hard at harvest when the grain dryer runs flat out. For a dairy business, that means solar can do two jobs at once: cut the round-the-clock cost of milking, and turn underused arable land or roof space into a fresh income stream. The right answer can be rooftop, ground-mount, or both together, and it depends entirely on your load profile and how much capital you want to commit. Farm grant schemes open and close, and none of the English schemes we read in October 2026 listed solar PV; the dairy farm solar grants page lists each route with its status and the date we read it.

It is also worth being honest about where arable solar is harder work than dairy solar. A milking herd gives you a constant, predictable load that absorbs generation all year round, whereas an arable enterprise concentrates its big demand into a few weeks of grain drying and then goes quiet. That does not weaken the case, but it does change the design: an arable array has to be matched carefully to either the drying peak or the daytime baseload, and the spare capacity has somewhere worthwhile to go, whether that is the dairy parlour, a battery, or the grid under the Smart Export Guarantee.

What a typical arable install looks like and how it is sized

The defining feature is the grain dryer: a large but seasonal load that runs hard for a few autumn weeks and barely at all the rest of the year. There are two sensible routes, and both are worth modelling. The first is to size for the drying peak with a big rooftop or ground array and lean on export income outside the season. The second is to size smaller for daytime baseload and add a battery for the drying weeks. On a mixed dairy farm there is a third advantage: spare summer generation from a grain-store roof can offset milk cooling when the dryer is idle, so the array never has nowhere to send its power. The crop calendar should be overlaid on the half-hourly meter data to find the design that pays best for a particular farm.

Costs, payback and tax relief

The Smart Export Guarantee matters more here than on the parlour alone, because the seasonal drying load means an arable array often exports significantly outside harvest, and that export income at a few pence to about 12-13p per kilowatt hour is part of the case rather than an afterthought. Sheep can usually continue to graze beneath the panels, so the land keeps working. The cost guide compares owning a rooftop system against leasing land side by side.

Funding routes in detail

The 100% Annual Investment Allowance remains the universal route, expensing qualifying plant in year one up to the one million pound cap, which comfortably covers most rooftop arable installs and stacks the relief in a single tax year. The Smart Export Guarantee pays a few pence to about 12-13p per kilowatt hour for exported surplus, and arable load profiles with a seasonal dryer peak tend to export more than a constant dairy load, so SEG carries real weight here. Farm grant schemes open and close, and none of the English schemes we read in October 2026 listed solar PV; the dairy farm solar grants page lists each route with its status and the date we read it.

Compliance and sector considerations

In England, rooftop solar on a farm building is generally permitted development under Class J of Part 14 of the GPDO 2015, not the householder Class A: up to 50 kW is permitted subject to the Class J limits, and above 50 kW the council makes a prior-approval decision on design and appearance, including glare. A listed building falls outside Class J and needs planning permission and Listed Building Consent. In Wales, solar PV on a non-domestic building falls under Part 43, Class A of the Welsh general permitted development order, and in Scotland under Class 6J of the Scottish order; each has its own limits and exclusions, so check the rules for your building before relying on permitted development. Ground-mounted arrays are treated differently from rooftop installs, so check the planning position with the local planning authority before committing to one, and an Environmental Impact Assessment can be required for larger schemes. If any of the arable land or buildings are tenanted you will need landlord consent, and most institutional landlords such as the Crown Estate, the Church Commissioners, the Wellcome Trust and county councils have standard tenant-PV agreements; private landlords vary, so ask for their lease addendum early. Pre-2000 grain stores and sheds often carry asbestos cement roofing, so an asbestos survey comes first, and the roof is often over-clad or replaced before panels go on. The long pole is almost always the grid: a G99 connection on a capacity-constrained rural network can take six to eighteen months, which is why the application is best submitted early. When comparing installers, ask for their MCS certificate number and check it on the MCS database, and check NICEIC, RECC and TrustMark membership with the issuing bodies. SEO Dons Ltd publishes this site and does not install.

Where to go next

If the milking side is your priority, start with solar for dairy farms, and if you also run other stock see livestock farm solar. To compare the numbers, read the cost guide and the grants and funding page, then send an enquiry or read the dairy solar FAQs.