Farm Solar Panel Grants UK 2026

Last reviewed: 29 September 2026, against the government pages listed under Sources at the end of this page.

Solar grants for farmers: as of September 2026, no government grant for solar panels on farms is open in any UK nation. England's Improving Farm Productivity (IFP) grant — up to 25% of the cost, from £15,000 to £100,000, for solar on farm-building roofs or irrigation reservoirs, never ground-mounted arrays — has closed, and no further round has been announced. The current farm capital schemes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not list solar panels. What still works: the £1 million Annual Investment Allowance and the other capital allowances, a Welsh Government loan at a fixed 3% for renewable generation, business-rates rules for on-site generation, and export payments.

Most pages about farm solar grants still describe schemes that have closed, and some describe schemes that never existed. This page gives the status of every public scheme a farmer might be told about, nation by nation, with the date we checked it and a link to the source. The short version is unwelcome but useful: in September 2026 the money for farm solar comes from tax relief, loans and your own electricity bill, not from grants. If a round reopens, the rules of the last one — below — are the best guide to being ready.

Government grants for solar farms — the four-nation summary

Whether you search for government grants for solar farms, solar power grants for farms, solar panel grants for farmers or solar farm government funding, these are the schemes that come up, and this is where each stood in late September 2026.

England — Improving Farm Productivity (IFP) grant

The Improving Farm Productivity grant is the only English scheme that has paid for solar panels to power farms. Its rules are worth knowing because they are the template any future round is likely to follow:

• Rate and size: up to 25% of the cost of eligible items. For solar, the minimum grant was £15,000 — 25% of a £60,000 project — and the maximum £100,000 per applicant business.
• Where the panels could go: on farm-building rooftops or irrigation reservoirs only. A ground-based solar array was excluded, and the system had to be mainly for farm power and not on a residential property.
• Eligible items: solar PV panels, solar batteries, inverters, utility meters, electrical grid connections and power diverters.
• Who could apply: farm businesses, including tenants — who were responsible for getting any permissions they needed from their landlord. Contractors were not eligible for solar funding.
• Timing: nothing could be started or bought before the project start date in the grant funding agreement.

Status: round 2's online checker ran from 25 January to 21 March 2024 and full applications closed on 31 July 2025. The applicant guidance (updated 2 March 2026) says round 2 is closed, and gov.uk's Funding for farmers page (updated 22 September 2026) lists no further round.

England — the other schemes farmers ask about

Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF). The 2026 window closed at midday on 12 May 2026, and Defra described it as the final standalone round of FETF in its current form. FETF paid fixed amounts against an item list — £1,000 to £25,000 per grant theme — and its 2023–2026 item lists did not include solar panels to power a farm; solar appeared only as part of items such as a solar-powered water pump.

Capital Grants 2026 opened on 30 July and closed on 1 September 2026 once its budget was allocated; solar was not on its item list. The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI26) closed after its second window on 22 September 2026, with another opportunity promised for 2027, and has no solar action. Farming in Protected Landscapes, which runs until March 2029 in National Parks and National Landscapes, states in its guidance for applicants that solar parks or arrays are not eligible.

Can you get a grant for ground-mounted solar on a farm?

No. The Improving Farm Productivity grant excluded ground-based arrays, and no current UK farm scheme funds them. Field-scale solar is a commercial generation project: a developer typically leases the land, or the farm sells power through a power purchase agreement, and large schemes compete in the government's Contracts for Difference auctions.

If you are weighing up leasing land for solar, three payment rules matter. Delinked payments in England do not need land and are not affected if you change what the land is used for — and 2027 is their last year. Land under a solar array has its own Rural Payments Agency land-use code (UT01), which the RPA lists as a non-agricultural use. And Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier excludes parcels with solar panels generating electricity for use off the farm. See the 1-acre solar farm guide for the economics, and ground-mounted solar for farms for the practical side.

Scotland — solar is excluded from the current farm schemes

The Future Farming Investment Scheme is Scotland's main farm capital scheme. Its 2025 round (open 14 July to 22 August 2025) offered up to £20,000 per business, and its eligible-items list put solar panels, renewable energy investments and battery storage in the not-eligible column; only solar-powered equipment such as a submersible water pump qualified. The Scottish Government has announced the next round for winter 2026, at 50% of eligible costs (more for new entrants, Highlands and Islands businesses and some environmental items) up to £20,000 per business, from a £14.25 million budget — with the item list to be published before it opens.

The other names you will hear are closed to farm solar. The Sustainable Agriculture Capital Grant Scheme has closed and never covered panels. CARES funding from Local Energy Scotland is for non-profit community groups. The Business Energy Scotland SME Loan offers interest-free loans of up to £100,000 over eight years for other measures but is not accepting new solar PV applications. What does apply in Scotland: capital allowances, the Smart Export Guarantee, and a rating rule (SSI 2023/32) that takes on-site renewable generation plant out of business-rates valuations until 31 March 2035. More on the Scotland farm solar guide.

Wales — no grant, but a 3% loan

Wales's farm capital grants do not fund solar panels. Small Grants – Efficiency (last window January to February 2026; up to £15,000 at 40%) listed only a solar-powered fencing energiser and a solar-powered livestock water pump. Its successor, Capital Production and Efficiency (open from 28 July 2026 to March 2027; 40% of costs, £500 to £15,000 per business a year), lists the same two items and no solar PV. The older Farm Business Grant and Sustainable Production Grant closed with the 2014–2020 Rural Development Programme, and the Sustainable Farming Scheme that began on 1 January 2026 has no solar or renewable-energy capital option.

The live route is a loan. The Sustainable Agriculture Loan Scheme, run by the Development Bank of Wales as a one-year pilot from 1 July 2026, lends Welsh farm businesses between £25,001 and £1 million at a fixed interest rate of 3%, and its eligible uses include renewable energy generation for on-farm use. The bank's Green Business Loan Scheme (£1,000 to £1.5 million) also lists solar PV. See the Wales farm solar guide.

Northern Ireland — no current scheme for solar

DAERA's Sustainable Farming Investment Scheme — 40% of eligible costs up to £25,000 — ran its first round from 21 July to 3 September 2026, with more rounds planned over the next three to four years; its item list covered crop, livestock, resource and slurry equipment, with solar only as part of items such as water pumps and fencers. The earlier Farm Business Improvement Scheme – Capital closed in 2022 and explicitly excluded renewable energy projects. Northern Ireland also has no equivalent of the Smart Export Guarantee: the NI Renewables Obligation closed to new generation on 31 March 2017, and a proposed renewable electricity support scheme is not yet in law. See the Northern Ireland farm solar guide.

Tax relief — the support that does still apply

Capital allowances are UK-wide and open all year. Solar panels are "special rate" plant and machinery (section 104A of the Capital Allowances Act 2001), which decides the reliefs available:

• Annual Investment Allowance: 100% of the cost set against profits in the year of purchase, up to £1 million a year — available to sole traders, partnerships and companies, and enough for almost any farm roof.
• 50% first-year allowance: companies can claim 50% of special-rate expenditure in year one, with the rest in the special rate pool.
• Special rate pool: 6% a year on a reducing balance for anything not relieved another way.
• Not available for solar: full expensing and the new 40% first-year allowance from 1 January 2026 both apply to main-rate plant only.

The detail, with worked examples for sole traders, partnerships and companies, is on our guide to capital allowances on solar panels. Two other reliefs matter for farm roofs: in England, plant generating renewable electricity mainly for use on the premises is excepted from business-rates valuations until 1 April 2035, and Scotland has an equivalent rule to 31 March 2035.

Export payments

In Great Britain, surplus electricity can earn money under the Smart Export Guarantee. Each licensed supplier sets its own rate — roughly 4p to 12p per kWh as at July 2026. For systems up to 50 kW, suppliers ask for MCS or an equivalent certification; from 50 kW to 5 MW, the installation must be certified to the supplier's satisfaction. Because a farm usually saves far more per kWh by using its own output than by exporting it, size the array around daytime demand rather than export.

Worked example — what a grant is really worth

A grant is not worth its face value to a profitable farm, because the grant-funded part of the cost does not qualify for capital allowances (section 532 of the Capital Allowances Act 2001; HMRC gives allowances on the net amount). Take a 50 kW rooftop system at the DESNZ 2025/26 median price for 10–50 kW systems, £1,262 per kW: £63,100. A 25% grant, if a round like IFP reopened, would be £15,775 — just above the old £15,000 minimum.

That is why tax relief, not grants, does most of the work for farms in 2026 — and why a missed grant round is less of a loss than it looks. We explain the sum in more detail in is a farm solar grant worth its face value?

Farm solar funding timeline, 2022–2026

The dated record of the windows that matter to farm solar — useful for judging when a scheme is likely to reopen, and for spotting articles that still describe closed rounds as open.

How to be ready if a grant round reopens

1. Plan the array on a roof or reservoir. The last English grant excluded ground-mounted arrays and residential property, and wanted the power used mainly on the farm.
2. Get your meter data. Twelve months of half-hourly data shows how much output the farm would use itself — the basis of both the business case and any application.
3. Get quotations, but do not order or start work. Anything bought or begun before a grant's project start date is not eligible.
4. Sort permissions early. Tenants need the landlord's agreement; check planning (planning permission for farm solar) and the grid connection.
5. Watch the official pages. gov.uk's Funding for farmers page in England; ruralpayments.org for the Future Farming Investment Scheme item list in Scotland; gov.wales and the Development Bank of Wales in Wales; DAERA for the next Sustainable Farming Investment Scheme round in Northern Ireland.

If the numbers work without a grant — and on a farm with steady daytime demand they often do — waiting for a round that may never come can cost more in electricity than the grant would have been worth. Our farm solar cost guide shows what a system costs and earns.

Common questions about farm solar grants

Sources

• gov.uk — Improving Farm Productivity grant round 2 applicant guidance (updated 2 March 2026) and equipment definitions.
• gov.uk — Funding for farmers, growers and land managers (updated 22 September 2026).
• gov.uk — Farming Equipment and Technology Fund 2026 (updated 12 May 2026); Defra Farming blog, 24 February 2026.
• Defra Farming blog — Capital Grants 2026 now open (30 July 2026) and now closed (1 September 2026); SFI26 window 2 now closed (22 September 2026).
• gov.uk — Delinked payments (1 July 2026); RPA land-use codes (22 April 2026); Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier applicant's guide (21 July 2026).
• ruralpayments.org — Future Farming Investment Scheme guidance and A–Z eligible items (7 August 2025); gov.scot, "Boost for farmers and crofters" (3 August 2026).
• localenergy.scot — CARES funds; businessenergyscotland.org — SME Loan Scheme FAQs; Scottish Statutory Instrument 2023/32.
• gov.wales — Small Grants – Efficiency window 5 rules and item list (January 2026); Capital Production and Efficiency guidance (July 2026); Sustainable Farming Scheme description; "Welsh farms access low-interest loans" (29 June 2026). developmentbank.wales — Green Business Loan Scheme.
• daera-ni.gov.uk — Sustainable Farming Investment Scheme announcement (7 July 2026) and round 1 item list; FBIS Capital ineligible items and FAQs. economy-ni.gov.uk — NI Renewables Obligation.
• legislation.gov.uk — Capital Allowances Act 2001, sections 45S, 45U, 51A, 104A, 104D and 532.
• Ofgem — Smart Export Guarantee guidance for generators. DESNZ — Solar PV cost data 2025/26.