Solar panels for farms in Dorset
Solar for your farm's own power: barns, ground-mount and off-grid sites across Dorset, with honest farm-scale ROI and the off-grid specialism no national agri-solar page offers.
- MCS & NAPIT certified
- RECC registered
- £2m public liability
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Let's be clear from the start
Solar for your farm's own power, not a solar-farm land lease
If you've searched "solar panels for farms", you might have landed on pages about leasing your land to a utility solar-farm developer. That's not what we do. New Gen designs and installs solar, battery and off-grid systems that generate power for your farm's own use, cutting the cost of running machinery, refrigeration and buildings, or replacing an eye-watering grid-connection quote altogether.
Why farms are going solar
Rising overheads, energy security, and land that can finally pay for itself.
Rising overheads
Machinery, refrigeration and buildings all draw power. Solar cuts the running cost of a farm business that never really switches off.
Energy security
A remote site with an expensive or non-existent grid connection is exactly where solar, battery and generator/ATS resilience earns its keep.
ROI on unused land or roof
Barn roofs and spare ground can generate a return instead of sitting idle, sized to your load, not a template.
The farm case
What a farm system costs, and when it pays back
Farm-scale ROI follows the same commercial logic as any big-daytime-load business: needs-sized, often zero-export, with a return typically around 4 years at commercial scale.
Farm-specific £/kW and payback figures are confirmed at your free assessment. The exact number depends on your building, load and site. Finance options are available, subject to status.
A worked example
Commercial installed & managed
1.2MW+
Typical commercial ROI window
~4 years
Sizing approach
From your existing generator/load, then oversized
VAT treatment
20% VAT, offsets taxable profit
Remote or off-grid site?
No affordable grid connection? Off-grid can be cheaper
If your site is remote, or the grid-connection quote is eye-watering, off-grid solar, battery and generator/ATS can work out cheaper, and keep the power on.
New grid connection
£70k–£150k+
Real quotes seen for semi-remote / long-driveway / three-phase (~60kW) sites.
Off-grid solar + battery + ATS
Fully requirement-dependent
Sized to your farm's load, with a generator and automatic transfer switch for resilience, no export, no grid fees.
Real example: Max Events, a Dorchester events and glamping site, was quoted £150k+ for a grid connection. We designed a ~£70k off-grid solar, battery and generator/ATS system for their specific load instead, projected by the customer to save over £1,000,000 in diesel over the system's life. Your own figure depends entirely on your farm's site and load.
Compare off-grid for my farmBarn roof, ground-mount, or off-grid
Which suits your farm, and the planning you'll need
Barn and outbuilding roofs are often the easiest starting point. Trapezoidal roofs are the safest and cheapest to fit, fibre-cement roofs are more fragile and cost more to work on. Where roof space doesn't stack up, ground-mount on farmland is an option. Expect planning to take around 2–4 months. Battery storage is sized the same commercial way, Sunsynk racks or Sigenergy stackable to 120kWh, so a barn can carry a grain drier or milking parlour through peak load without pulling from the grid. For remote fields, workshops or off-grid sites, we design solar, battery and generator/ATS systems with no grid connection at all, sized from your existing generator's usage, then oversized for headroom.
How a farm install runs, with minimal disruption to trading
Free farm assessment
We survey your buildings, land and load, and design a system around it, barn roof, ground-mount or off-grid.
Planning & DNO, handled
Ground-mount planning (2–4 months) and DNO applications are managed for you.
Install, minimal disruption to trading
Even on large-scale farm installs, we plan the work to keep disruption to your operations to a minimum.
Handover & monitoring
You're shown how the system performs, with wireless communication and monitoring built in on bigger sites.
Ready to talk through your farm's options? Get a free, no-pressure assessment.
Or call and ask us anything first. No scripts, no urgency.
A Dorset site we took off-grid
Max Events, Dorchester: £150k grid quote → ~£70k off-grid
A £150k+ grid-connection quote replaced with a ~£70k off-grid system: 120× 450W panels, two 30kW off-grid inverters, and 12× 5.12kWh batteries across two expandable racks, generating around 44,000kWh a year, with a generator that auto-kicks-in at 12% battery and transfers over automatically at 10%. Roof work was completed in 3 days. Projected to save over £1,000,000 in diesel over the system's life.
How much do solar panels for a farm cost?
It depends on your buildings, land and load, a barn-roof system is priced differently to a ground-mount or off-grid install. Your exact figure is confirmed at a free assessment, following the same needs-sized approach as our other commercial work.
Can farmers get grants or funding for solar panels?
Finance options are available, subject to status, and 20% VAT (which offsets taxable profit) applies to commercial installs. We'll talk through what applies at your assessment.
Can I put solar panels on agricultural land, and do I need planning permission?
Ground-mount systems on farmland typically need planning permission, which usually takes 2–4 months. Barn and outbuilding roofs are often simpler, we'll confirm exactly what your site needs at survey.
Barn roof, ground-mount or off-grid, which suits my farm?
It depends on your roof condition, available land and how remote your site is. Trapezoidal roofs are the safest and cheapest to fit. Fibre-cement roofs need more care. Remote fields or sites with an expensive grid connection are often better served by a fully off-grid solar, battery and generator/ATS system.
Who do I trust to design and install a farm system, and what's the warranty?
We're MCS and NAPIT certified (NAP-78112), RECC registered, and carry an insurance-backed workmanship warranty (IWA) plus £2m public liability, cover that doesn't disappear if we ever went under. We've installed and managed over 1.2MW of commercial solar across Dorset.
How much disruption to farm operations during install?
We plan every farm install to keep disruption to your operations to a minimum, even on large-scale jobs, the same approach we take on every commercial site.
Discuss your farm's solar project, or just call and ask
Honest, farm-scale ROI advice and real off-grid experience, from a Dorset-based team.