Uncover the best solar options for farms & agriculture while weighing costs, pros, and cons to maximize your energy savings. Photovoltaic panels are the most widely used solar technology. They convert sunlight directly into electricity and can be installed on rooftops.
Are solar farms a good idea?
Solar farms are attractive to many, but are not without shortcomings. Solar farms are large-scale collections of PV (photovoltaic) panels spread over one to 100 acres of land. Capturing the sun's energy to generate electricity, they feed into local and regional power grids regulated by public utilities.
What is a solar-powered farm?
To compare, traditional solar-powered farms may have solar panels on the roof of the barn, cow shed, or other buildings to generate electricity for farming facilities or even the home or offices while maintaining land use primarily for crops.
Known as agrivoltaics (or Agri-PV), a solar energy installation on your farm can possibly provide you an additional revenue stream, and many farms worldwide take advantage of this dual land-use approach.
While obtaining planning consent for ground-mounted solar farms on agricultural land can be challenging – Andrew Shirley, our Head of Rural Research, advises it can “easily take ten years to get a scheme off the ground” - rural properties often feature large barns with roofs suitable for solar panel installations.
The debate of land use for solar versus agriculture is irrelevant, now that solar panels and farms have proven to coexist. This symbiotic relationship illuminates a path forward toward expanded food production, increased clean energy generation, and conservation of the most valuable resource of all–land.
Solar farms are bound by climate and weather restraints – they simply can't produce electricity without sunlight. For constant power supply during night hours or cloudy days, energy storage solutions are critical but can be expensive. Solar farms require large tracts of land which might compete with other land uses, further escalating land values.