The seven parts of a farm solar project
Solar Panel Installation
What happens from feasibility to switch-on: meter data, roof and asbestos checks, grid approval, MCS-certified installation and commissioning.
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Battery Storage
When a battery pays on a farm: sizing from half-hourly meter data, the VAT position on business premises, and grid approval.
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Maintenance and Servicing
What an annual service should check, cleaning on dusty and livestock sites, and the commissioning baseline to compare against.
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Performance Monitoring
What monitoring should show, how to check output against a PVGIS prediction, and how to tell a fault from normal ageing.
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Grid Connection
The G98 and G99 routes, how a network operator approves a farm system, export limits and export payments.
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System Upgrades and Expansion
Extending an array, replacing an inverter or adding a battery: network approval, planning, export payments and VAT.
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Ground-Mounted Solar
Field arrays on farm land: planning, land needed per MW, PVGIS output and the commercial routes that fund them.
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How the parts fit together
Most farm projects combine several of these. A typical rooftop project runs:
- 1. Desk feasibility and survey — sizing from half-hourly meter data, then roof structure, asbestos and supply checks.
- 2. Grid connection — a G99 application for anything above 16 A per phase, made before equipment is ordered.
- 3. Installation — an MCS 012-certified mounting kit on pitched roofs for MCS installations, and commissioning tests to IEC 62446-1.
- 4. Battery storage — optional, and only if the meter data shows enough surplus to store.
- 5. Monitoring and maintenance — alerts, monthly checks against the prediction and an annual service.
- 6. Upgrades — later extensions, inverter replacement or a retrofit battery, each needing the network operator's approval where capacity changes.
For projects on land instead of (or as well as) roofs, ground-mounted solar adds a planning application, ground investigation and access, and changes how the project is usually funded.
What a good farm solar installer should offer
- ✓ Half-hourly meter data analysis — sizing from your own demand, not a rule of thumb.
- ✓ A roof structure check by a competent person, and a structural engineer for unusual roofs.
- ✓ An asbestos-cement assessment where the roof is fibre cement — HSE treats these roofs as fragile.
- ✓ MCS certification for systems up to 50 kW, which Smart Export Guarantee suppliers ask for.
- ✓ The G99 application to the network operator, made before anything is ordered.
- ✓ A protected workmanship warranty — ask how it is covered if the installer stops trading.
- ✓ Commissioning records and monitoring handed over at the end, as the baseline for the system's life.
No grant for farm solar is open in any UK nation as of September 2026, so a good quote also shows the case without one — see the grant position and the tax relief that applies.
Guides by stage
- • Solar panel installation — the process, and what to ask an installer
- • Battery storage for farms — when a battery pays, and how to size it
- • Farm solar maintenance — what an annual service should cover
- • Farm solar monitoring — what to track and how to spot faults
- • Farm solar grid connection — how G98 and G99 applications work
- • Upgrading a farm system — extensions, inverters and batteries
- • Ground-mounted solar — planning, land needed per MW, output and foundations
- • Solar panels on metal roofs — fixing to box-profile, corrugated and standing-seam farm roofs
- • Floating solar — panels on an irrigation reservoir: output, evaporation evidence and consents
- • Solar water pumps — sizing a pump for troughs, boreholes and irrigation from the water it moves
- • Solar panels for greenhouses — where panels go on a glasshouse site, what shading costs the crop, and what a small panel can run
Cost summary
Government data is the best benchmark: DESNZ's 2025/26 statistics put the median installed cost of a 10–50 kW solar system at about £1,262 per kW (MCS-certified installations in Great Britain, including VAT where applicable, excluding batteries). There is no official series above 50 kW, so larger farm arrays, batteries and maintenance contracts are priced from itemised quotes. See the farm solar cost guide for costs by size.