As the demand for renewable energy grows, solar farms have emerged as vital to the transition to a sustainable future.
A solar farm, sometimes called a photovoltaic (PV) power station, is a large-scale installation of solar panels designed to capture sunlight and convert it into electricity. Unlike smaller residential systems, solar farms are typically expansive and connected directly to the power grid, generating enough electricity to power thousands of homes and businesses. This energy is distributed through the national grid infrastructure. The panels are placed on ground mount structures in areas with large spaces of land. Other commonly used terms are solar parks or photovoltaic power stations.
Solar farms are playing an increasingly important role in the UK’s national energy mix. They contribute to the country’s targets for reducing carbon emissions and achieving net-zero goals. As of 2023, the UK hosts almost 500 solar farms, significantly contributing to the nation’s renewable energy targets.
This blog explores the key aspects of solar farms, including their operation, costs, benefits, and growing opportunities for businesses, communities, and landowners across the UK.
Key Takeaways
- Solar farms are large-scale installations that provide renewable energy by converting sunlight into electricity.
- Utility-scale and community solar farms are common, each serving different scales and ownership models.
- Setting up a solar farm in the UK costs £500,000-£1 million per MW but offers long-term returns through energy sales and government incentives.
- Solar farms can enhance biodiversity and support agricultural practices like solar grazing, demonstrating their versatility.
- The UK is expanding solar capacity, aiming for a 40% increase by 2030, supported by government policies and innovations in solar technology.
How Does a Solar Farm Work?
Firstly, the sunlight is captured by the photovoltaic solar panels (PV) which creates an electrical current. This current is passed through an inverter to change direct current (DC) into alternating current (AC).
After this, a transformer increases the voltage to allow it to travel a long distance to the national grid. Finally, the electricity is delivered to the community powering homes, schools, organisations, hospitals, and businesses, etc., ensuring a steady supply of renewable energy.
Types of Solar Farms
Utility-Scale Solar Farms
These are large installations designed to generate electricity on a massive scale, typically owned by energy companies. They connect directly to the grid and can range from 5 MW to over 50 MW, supplying renewable energy to thousands of homes and businesses.
Community Solar Farms
Smaller in scale, these projects allow individuals, businesses, or communities to invest in shared solar energy production. Participants benefit from reduced energy costs and renewable power without needing to install panels on their own properties.
Factory Attached Solar Farms
These solar farms are integrated into the rooftops or surrounding land areas of factories and manufacturing facilities. By utilizing the extensive roof space available in industrial settings, these solar farms provide a dual benefit: they generate renewable energy for the facility’s operations while reducing overall electricity costs.
Agrisolar Farms
Agrisolar farms combine solar energy production with agricultural activities, maximizing land use efficiency. These farms involve the installation of solar panels on farmland, either raised above the ground to allow for crop cultivation underneath or strategically spaced to accommodate livestock grazing. Agrisolar farms benefit both energy production and agriculture, as the panels provide shade and protection to crops or animals while generating electricity.
How Much Does a Solar Farm Cost in the UK?
The cost of setting up a solar farm in the UK varies depending on its size and technology. On average, utility-scale solar farms cost between £500,000 and £1 million per MW installed. Key cost components include solar panels, inverters, land preparation, and grid connection fees.
Linear costs are solar panels, mounting system, inverters, cabling, fencing, etc. There are also fixed costs for example grid connection, access roads, CCTV and security systems. Each site is unique and costs will vary depending on what is required to make the site operational.
How Many Acres Do You Need for a Solar Farm?
Generally speaking, 1 kilowatt (kWp) of solar panels requires an area of 100 square feet. Thereby, most developers will require about 5 acres of land (5 acres) per megawatt (MWp) of power in order to commence construction.
In this example, a 5MWp system can power more than 1,350 homes and organisations based on an annual consumption of 3,600kWh per home.
However, it’s worth noting when estimating size requirements local towns and authorities do not permit full coverage of the entire land and only a proportion of it wiil be taken up with solar PV.
How Much Energy Does a Solar Farm Produce?
The amount of energy that a solar farm can produce depends on its size. Following on from our example previously, a 5MWp system will be expected to generate 3,553MWh (megawatt hours) of solar energy per year and would be anticipated to save 687,264kgCO₂e in 2023, this will decrease as the grid becomes decarbonized with other renewables being deployed in future.
Building Solar Farms in the UK
Building solar farms is a multiple-step process and usually requires involvement from various parties to utilize their skill sets.
- Cost Analysis: The first step is to complete a complex cost analysis to assess the investment and tax implications of the project. This analysis can help secure funding from investors.
- Assess Viability: The next step is to repeat this for all sites in question to assess their validity. Multiple factors are involved in this step to assess where the solar farm should be located, such as access, proximity to grid infrastructure, quality of soil, sunlight exposure, land topology importance, and proximity to airports. If sites of national heritage overlook the land, these need to be considered. Negotiations between the property owner and the developer will commence to arrive at a reasonable rent and lease agreement.
- Gain permissions. A solar farm will need planning permission to connect to the grid. These permissions can take a while to obtain. Specialist solar companies can guide you in this process and perform these applications for you.
- Construction: Once all parties are in agreement, the construction process can commence. The solar farm’s construction usually takes 6-12 months.
- Make Connection: The final stage is connecting the system to the national grid. To do this, developers coordinate with utilities to ensure a full connection and that all metering is in place.
Is My Land Suitable for a Solar Farm?
Many factors determine whether your land will be suitable for a solar farm such as land area, land quality, proximity to a grid connection, legal rights and orientation to the sun.
- Land Area: As mentioned previously, 1 kilowatt (kWp) of solar panels requires an area of 100 square feet. Therefore, most developers will require about 5 acres of land (5 acres) per megawatt of power to commence construction.
- Land Quality: The quality of the terrain and soil will be a huge factor in determining the land’s suitability. Typically, developers look for clear, flat land (5-degree minimal incline) with low risk to flooding. Unless an agrisolar farm is proposed, high-quality farmland will generally not be seen as a good location for solar farms and may be contested at the planning stage.
- Proximity to a high voltage Grid Connection: The solar farm’s accessibility to grid infrastructure is a big factor as a large distance from a connection point can increase the cost of interconnection for the developer. If the connection is found on your land, then the connection process will be smoothed out. Also, wayleaves will need to be sought from each landowner where a cable is laid, so if a cable needs to run across many different owners’ land, the project will be more complex.
- Legal Rights: The legalities around developing a solar farm are large. For example, any land that is classed as an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB), or a site of specific interest (SSSI) shouldn’t be considered.
- Level Of Sunlight: Locating the solar farm in areas of the UK where it is sunnier, for example, in the south, will make a large difference to the project’s viability.
How to Apply for a Solar Farm?
Some specialist solar firms can apply for grid connection on your behalf. Equally, these companies are familiar with planning applications and can conduct the needed studies and surveys for the solar farm to compile the detailed planning application needed for local or national government permission.
What Are The Benefits Of A Solar Farm?
Benefit To | By… |
Biodiversity and Environment |
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| Local Communities |
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| Farmers |
|
Source: Solar Energy UK Report
How to Invest in Solar Farms?
There are many ways to invest in solar farms. However, we encourage people to seek financial advice before investing in solar farms.
- Company Stock: The simplest way to invest in solar farms is to purchase a stock of a publicly traded company operating within the solar farm industry. Or if you want to reduce your risk then a sustainable ETF would be a good way to spread your investment across a pool of companies.
- Community Solar Farms: Many community-owned companies offer the ability to invest in community-owned solar farms on a pre-assessed land area. Company ownership and benefits for this can vary depending on the structure of the community-owned company.
- Build Your Own Solar Farm: If you own the land or have a partner with rights to the land then this could be an option. However, this would require large capital and extensive research to pull together specialist companies and contractors to achieve this.
- Lease The Land: If your land is big enough, an alternative option could be to lease your land out to a solar developer. Given the recent boom in demand for renewable energy, plenty of interested parties are looking to invest in solar farms.
Get Started with Your Solar Farm Journey
As one of the UK’s market leaders in renewable energy solutions, we are in the best position to help your business realise the potential of solar PV. Ultimately, it is down to us all to make changes towards sustainability in order to create a greener future. Now is a good time to assess your net-zero aspirations and talk to us about how we can help achieve them.
We offer comprehensive services, including design, installation, and maintenance. Whether you’re interested in setting up a solar farm or optimizing an existing one, our team ensures you get the most out of your investment.
Discover how much you could save by trying our Solar Panel Calculator. Learn more about our Renewable Energy Services and Technologies and how we can help you achieve sustainability goals.
FAQs About Solar Farms
How Long Does a Solar Farm Last?
A solar farm has several components: panels, a mounting system, inverters, transformers, and civil infrastructure to allow access for maintenance. If maintained, the mounting system, cabling, transformers, and civil infrastructure will last many years.
The panels will degrade over time. After 25 years, the predicted performance of most modern systems will still be over 80% production of day one performance. At this point, replacing the panels to improve generation will be considered. Therefore, the systems, assuming no or limited fault, will likely stay in place for longer.
The inverters will generally last around 10 years and need replacing when they fail. A good O&M contract will assist in this, and a well-maintained system should last for a long time, produce more energy and carbon reductions, and require less financial support. Sometimes, it can be economical to re-power the solar array, utilizing the same mounting system and transformer infrastructure but replacing the solar panels with more efficient models.
Can Solar Panels Be Recycled?
Solar panels can be taken from one system and re-used on another system providing that they are tested. If they are to be recycled then they have to be collected and shipped to specialist recycling companies in order to achieve the best results.
Ideally, a crystalline silicon panel will be 100% recycled, as the industry matures and technology progresses this is becoming more possible.
From a financial cost perspective whilst there is a cost involved in the purely recycling element there has to be allowance made for the removal of the panels, labour, shipping, etc. At present, there are no recyclers for solar panels in the UK, and so they have to be shipped to Europe meaning that transportation costs are a large part of the total costs.
Therefore, this clearly indicates that with the market’s growth, the opportunity exists to reduce this cost with more localised recycling options in the future.
The costs for decommissioning a ground-mounted system will be approximately 1% of the 25-year derived benefit. Overall, this is not a major concern but does need to be included in the final year’s financial returns.
How Many Solar Farms in the UK?
There are over 1,000 solar farms operating in the UK, all providing clean energy to the grid. Their numbers are increasing rapidly today as more investors and businesses develop new sites.
Do Solar Farms Damage the Soil?
Solar farms are ground-mounted solutions built on steel frames placed into the ground. Generally, these frames are piled into the ground, causing minimal disruption to most of the solar farm area. When the solar farm is decommissioned, these piles can be removed, leaving little trace of their location. As solar farms are low-intensive land uses with minimal pesticides or maintenance required, they can help the soil recover, boosting biodiversity and soil health.
Can Animals Graze Near Solar Farms?
Most animals are safe to graze around the solar panel arrays; however, it’s recommended that only certain animals be allowed near the area, as larger animals such as cattle or goats can risk injury if they chew through the wires or jump on top of the panels.
That’s why it’s best to only allow smaller animals with calmer natures such as sheep and chickens to be around the system. The mounting frames can be adjusted to allow for larger animals to graze underneath the panels and cabling can be installed with these animals in mind, for example protecting the cables in ducting.
Do Solar Farms Affect Property Value?
It can be a common opinion that renewable energy projects reduce the value of properties in the area. Research has shown that house prices within 2km to tall wind turbines and solar farms fell by 5.4% and 2.6%, respectively, from 1985 to 2019.
However, this varies depending on the type of house as detached houses saw no impact. Furthermore, further analysis of the study found that other factors were much more significant in determining decreases in house prices.
Are Solar Farms Dangerous to Live Near?
The electricity from the solar farm and transmission to the power grid emits extremely weak electromagnetic fields. The World Health Organisation (WHO) notes that there is no evidence that these are harmful to human health in any way, meaning that it is completely safe to live within close proximity to a solar farm.
How Much Land Do Solar Farms Take Up?
In the UK, new solar farms occupy roughly four acres of land per MWp of installed capacity. All solar farms in the UK currently account for 0.08% of total land use.
To meet the government’s net zero target, the Climate Change Committee estimates that we will need between 75-90GW of solar by 2050. Our analysis indicates that solar farms would at most account for approximately 0.4-0.6% of UK land – less than the amount currently used for golf courses.
How Much Money Can a Solar Farm Make?
The key income from a solar farm is the energy it generates, which can be sold to an off-taker or energy company. They may offer fixed prices per kWh or agree on a fee that varies depending on the spot price of the energy in the electricity market at that time.
If you have land with a nearby high-voltage electrical connection, a solar farm developer may be interested in renting it. In this case, you would be able to agree to a ground rent for the land with them for a fixed number of years.