Solar Panels for Farms in Hampshire

An independent guide to solar on farms in Hampshire and the wider Hampshire area, including Dorset, Wiltshire, Surrey: what it costs, the planning rules, the grid and the funding position, from official sources.

Agricultural solar panels in Hampshire

Hampshire is one of southern England’s most varied farming counties, and that variety is exactly what makes it such strong ground for agricultural solar. The chalk downland that rolls across the centre of the county — the South Downs in the south-east and the North Wessex Downs in the north-west — carries large combinable arable rotations of milling wheat, malting barley and oilseed rape, while the river valleys of the Test, Itchen and Meon support dairy, beef and the famous Alresford watercress beds. Add the pig units around the Andover and Basingstoke downs, the equestrian and stud holdings near Winchester and Petersfield, and the mixed farms of the Hampshire Weald, and you have a county whose energy demand is heavily daytime-weighted across grain drying, refrigeration, ventilation, pumping and washdown. Roughly 1.85 million people live across the wider county, supported by several thousand agricultural holdings, and the load profiles on those holdings are precisely the kind solar serves best.

Hampshire has around 980–1,020 kWh/m²/year of irradiance — among the highest in mainland Britain thanks to its southern latitude and the open, south-facing aspect of the chalk downs. How quickly agricultural solar panels here pay back depends on how much of the output the farm uses itself (the cost guide shows the arithmetic); no England grant for farm solar is open, but the 100% Annual Investment Allowance applies. SolarPanelsForFarms.SolarPanelsForFarms.uk is an independent guide, not an installer: send your details through the quote form and we will reply by email. The distribution network operator for the whole county is Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), and every connection over 3.68kW per phase runs through their G99 process.

For growers weighing a field rather than a roof, our acre-by-acre solar farm figures.

Farm solar across Hampshire by district

Hampshire’s farming is far from uniform, so neither is the right system. The table below shows the dominant enterprise type and the typical system band in each part of the county.

The fastest paybacks sit on the large arable holdings around Basingstoke and Andover, where south-facing grain-store and machinery-shed roofs carry 100kWp-plus arrays and the August–October drying load soaks up generation on site. Dairy units in the Itchen and Test valleys pay back almost as quickly because their refrigeration and parlour-cooling demand is constant and daytime-heavy, and the Alresford watercress operations — with their continuous pumping and washing loads — are another fast-payback profile that surprises most growers.

Grants and tax relief for Hampshire farms

Hampshire farms are in England, and no England grant for solar panels on farms is open. Round 2 of the Improving Farm Productivity grant paid up to 25% of eligible costs — for solar, £15,000 to £100,000, for panels on farm-building rooftops or irrigation reservoirs only, not ground-based arrays — but full applications closed on 31 July 2025 and no further round has been announced. The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) 2026 window closed on 12 May 2026, and its item lists did not include solar panels to power a farm.

The 100% Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) lets a profitable farm business write off the full cost of the installation against taxable profits in the year of purchase, which for many Hampshire farms recovers 19–25% of the spend through reduced corporation or income tax. Once the system is generating, surplus electricity exported to the grid earns money under the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG), with the best tariffs paying meaningful rates per kWh exported — useful for the county’s arable farms, whose generation peaks in summer while their heaviest load lands in the autumn drying season. With no grant open, two mechanisms remain: AIA recovers tax on the cost, and SEG monetises the surplus. See our full breakdown of farm solar grants and funding for the current funding position.

Planning and grid in Hampshire

Hampshire carries some of the most heavily designated landscape in southern England, so planning matters here more than in most counties. The South Downs National Park covers the south-eastern third of the county around Petersfield, the Meon valley and the East Hampshire hangers, while the North Wessex Downs National Landscape (AONB) wraps the chalk uplands in the far north around the Andover and Basingstoke downs. The good news for most farmers is that roof-mounted solar on an existing agricultural building is normally permitted development under Class J, even within the National Park and AONB: no capacity limit, provided the panels stand no more than 0.2 m proud of a pitched roof and at least 1 m from the roof edge, with listed buildings excluded and the council’s prior approval on design and glare above 50 kW — which means most barn-roof and grain-store installs need no planning application at all.

Ground-mounted arrays are the exception. A field-scale ground mount inside the South Downs National Park or the North Wessex Downs AONB will normally need full planning consent and a Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, and listed flint-and-brick downland farmsteads frequently need a conversation with the conservation officer before any roof work. The chalk-stream valleys of the Test and Itchen — both internationally protected habitats — also constrain where ground-mount inverter and battery housing can sit. On the grid side, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) is the DNO for the whole county. Systems up to 3.68kW per phase can be notified after connection; anything larger — which covers essentially every commercial farm array — needs a G99 application to SSEN before energising. Check that a quote covers the full G99 submission, including any export limitation or curtailment device needed where local network capacity is tight — a genuine consideration on the rural feeders across the downs and the East Hampshire hangers.

Typical Hampshire farm solar projects

Rather than quote a single farm, here is the realistic range across the county’s main enterprise types. For cost, DESNZ’s Solar PV cost data for 2025/26 put the median installed price of a 10–50 kW system in Great Britain at £1,262 per kW.

• Itchen or Test valley dairy unit (50–80kWp): a parlour, plate cooler and milk-tank refrigeration on a steel-frame collecting yard or cubicle shed. Constant daytime cooling load means a high self-consumption rate.

• North Hampshire arable estate (150–300kWp): large south-facing grain-store and machinery-shed roofs around Basingstoke or Andover feeding grain-drying fans, augers and a workshop. Generation and the August–October drying peak overlap strongly, giving the county’s fastest paybacks, with surplus summer output earning under the SEG.

• Alresford watercress or Test valley horticulture holding (40–90kWp): a barn or pack-house roof offsetting continuous spring-fed pumping, washing, chilling and packing loads, which run hard through the daylight hours and lift self-consumption.

• Mixed downland farm with battery (75–120kWp plus storage): an arable-and-livestock holding near Alton or Petersfield pairing roof PV with a battery to shift midday surplus into evening milking, morning start-up and a growing telehandler and EV-charging load, lifting self-consumption above 80%.

Each should be sized from your own half-hourly meter data, not a rule of thumb, with the gross cost, AIA tax saving and SEG income modelled before you commit. For the full pricing tables by system size and enterprise type, see our guide to agricultural solar panel cost.

For costs by system size see what agricultural solar panels cost; for funding, farm solar grants and capital allowances; for the regional picture, farm solar by UK region.