Solar Panels for Farms in County Tyrone

Specialist agricultural solar PV across County Tyrone and the wider County Tyrone area, including County Londonderry, County Fermanagh, County Armagh. MCS-certified, capital grant-backed, fixed-price proposals within 7 working days.

Agricultural solar panels in County Tyrone

County Tyrone is Northern Ireland’s largest county by area and one of its most heavily farmed, with around 178,000 residents spread across a landscape that runs from the upland sheep ground of the Sperrins down to the dairy drumlins of Mid Ulster and the poultry belt along the western shore of Lough Neagh. Beef and sheep dominate the hills around Omagh, Strabane and the Sperrin foothills; intensive dairy and mixed enterprises cluster on the richer ground around Cookstown and Dungannon; and large broiler and laying units sit close to Coalisland and Lough Neagh. These are exactly the enterprises where agricultural solar pays hardest, because each one runs a steady daytime electrical load — vacuum pumps and bulk-tank cooling on the dairies, ventilation and lighting on the poultry sheds, augers and feed mills across the mixed farms — that lines up cleanly with the hours the panels are generating.

Tyrone sits at roughly 920–980 kWh per kWp of annual irradiance, which is lower than the south of England but more than adequate for a high-baseload farm; the long Ulster summer days carry the bulk of generation and self-consumption does the rest. A roof of south-east to south-west pitched agricultural sheet, of which Tyrone has no shortage, will typically self-consume 65–80% of what it generates without a battery, displacing grid units that NI farms now buy at a premium. Every connection in the county runs through NIE Networks, the distribution operator for the whole of Northern Ireland, and we handle that application end to end. At a gross cost of roughly £600–900 per kWp — about £360–540 per kWp once the DAERA grant and capital allowances land — a well-sized Tyrone farm array pays back in 2 to 4 years and then runs for 25-plus years on sunlight the farm already receives for free.

Farm solar across County Tyrone by district

The fastest paybacks in the county come from the poultry and intensive dairy units around Dungannon, Coalisland and the Lough Neagh shore, where ventilation, lighting and cooling create a high, flat daytime demand that the array meets almost unit-for-unit. Hill beef and sheep farms in the Sperrins generate less steady daytime load, so systems there are sized smaller and a battery often earns its place by shifting evening and overnight use.

Grants and tax relief for County Tyrone farms

County Tyrone is in Northern Ireland, so the funding picture is different from England — there is no FETF here. The route that matters is the DAERA Farm Business Improvement Scheme, which supports renewable and energy-efficiency capital at up to 40% of eligible cost for qualifying NI agricultural businesses. On a £60,000 array that is up to £24,000 back, taking a Tyrone farm’s net outlay close to the £360–540 per kWp band.

On top of the grant, the residual capital qualifies for 100% Annual Investment Allowance (AIA), letting a profitable farm business write off the remaining spend against taxable profits in the year of installation. For a corporation-tax-paying NI farm, stacking the DAERA 40% capital grant with full AIA on the balance can push total effective support past half the installed cost. Eligibility, scoring and open-window timing for DAERA schemes change between rounds, so we confirm current criteria before quoting. We size the system around your half-hourly meter data and prepare the grant paperwork as part of the proposal — see our agricultural solar panel cost breakdown for worked per-kWp figures, and our farm solar grants guide for how DAERA and AIA combine on a real Tyrone project.

Planning and grid in County Tyrone

The dominant landscape designation in the county is the Sperrin Mountains Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which blankets much of north and west Tyrone, with the western fringe of the Lough Neagh wetland complex along the eastern edge. For the great majority of Tyrone farms this is not an obstacle: roof-mounted solar on existing agricultural buildings is generally permitted development, even within the AONB, provided the panels follow the roof plane and do not project above the ridge. That covers parlours, cubicle houses, grain stores, machinery sheds and poultry units — the buildings most farms want to use anyway.

Ground-mounted arrays are the exception. Within the Sperrins AONB or close to the Lough Neagh designated sites, a field-scale ground-mount needs full planning permission with a landscape and visual impact assessment, and consent is judged case by case — siting away from skylines, behind existing hedge and bank screening, helps. On the grid side, every Tyrone connection goes through NIE Networks. Systems are notified or applied for under the G98/G99 framework — smaller single-premises systems by simple notification, larger farm arrays via a full G99 application that confirms the local network can absorb the export. Rural three-phase capacity in parts of the Sperrins and west of the county can be tight, so we check the connection position early and size to your supply rather than designing a system the network will not accept.

Typical County Tyrone farm solar projects

The figures below are representative ranges for the enterprise types we see most across Tyrone, not specific named farms.

• Mid Ulster dairy (Cookstown/Dungannon), 150–400 cows: a 50–120 kWp roof-mount across parlour and cubicle-house roofs, often paired with a 30–60 kWh battery to carry early-morning and evening milking loads. Net cost typically lands in the £360–540 per kWp band after DAERA and AIA, with payback around 1.9–2.4 years.

• Lough Neagh-shore poultry unit, broiler or laying: large shed roofs and a high, flat baseload make these the strongest fit in the county. A 100–250 kWp roof array self-consumes most of what it generates against continuous ventilation and lighting, giving the fastest paybacks in Tyrone — typically 1.6–2.1 years.

• Sperrin foothill beef and sheep farm: smaller daytime demand means a tighter 15–40 kWp system on the main shed, sometimes with a battery to shift evening use. Net outlay sits at the lower end in cash terms, with payback around 2.3–2.6 years once DAERA support is applied.

• West Tyrone mixed family farm (Omagh/Strabane): a 20–50 kWp roof-mount feeding feed mills, augers, workshop and farmhouse, with strong year-round self-consumption across the mix of enterprises and payback in the 2.2–2.6 year range.

Every quote begins with a free desk feasibility from your half-hourly meter data, a fixed-price proposal within seven working days, and the NIE Networks application and DAERA paperwork prepared alongside it. We cover the whole of County Tyrone — Omagh, Cookstown, Dungannon, Strabane, Coalisland and the surrounding rural areas.