Solar panels on farmland: what a landowner should settle first
Putting solar panels on agricultural land is not a larger version of putting them on a farm building. It is a planning question and a property question before it is an energy question, and the two routes lead to different counterparties, different documents and different money. This page covers how planning treats solar farms on farmland, why the land grade decides most of the argument, what drives the rent, and what to settle before you sign.
Contents
Ground-mounted solar and a farm roof are different propositions
Ground-mounted solar occupies land, while rooftop solar occupies a structure the farm already owns and already pays to maintain.
A rooftop array on a grain store is an energy project: you spend capital, you generate power, the farm uses most of it, and the value is the electricity you no longer buy. A field of solar panels is a property project: a developer takes a long lease, builds at its own cost, sells the solar energy into the market and pays rent. Solar installations on farm buildings run to tens or hundreds of kilowatts. Large solar projects on farmland run to tens of megawatts across hundreds of acres of agricultural land, which is why solar farms draw objection, parish meetings and national press in a way rooftop solar never does. If renewable energy is on the agenda because of the energy bill, the roof is the first place to look.
It matters to be straight about which business we are in. We arrange rooftop and on farm generation sized to what the holding consumes. We do not broker farmland to solar farm developers. A land lease is a property transaction with a different counterparty, a different adviser and a different set of risks, and where that is what you want, our sibling site solarfarmsforsale.co.uk works on solar land and on operational assets. That is the right door.
- The parcel is grade 3b, 4 or 5 under the Agricultural Land Classification rather than BMV land
- A connection point with spare export capacity sits close enough that the cable run does not eat the value
- The field is awkward to farm: small, wet, steeply sloping, severed by a road or shaded
- You want long dated rent rather than farming income, and accept a tenant on the holding for decades
- The load is a grain store, dairy parlour, poultry unit or packhouse running through daylight hours
- The land is grade 1, 2 or 3a, where the planning argument starts against you
- You want the solar power itself, because a unit you use is worth several times a unit you sell
- You will not give a developer an option over the field for years while it decides
Do you need planning permission to put solar panels on agricultural land?
Planning law treats a field of solar panels as a change of use of the land, so solar farms need express permission and no permitted development right reaches them.
What permitted development actually covers
Part 14 of Schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 is the renewable energy part. Class J allows solar panels on the roof or wall of a non domestic building, subject to conditions on siting, protrusion and removal. Class K allows a standalone ground-mounted installation whose surface area does not exceed nine square metres, which is roughly four panels: a right designed for a shed, not for a field. Part 6 is the agricultural part, and it is the one landowners most often confuse with the solar rights. It permits farm buildings and works reasonably necessary for agriculture, and it does not permit a change of use away from agriculture.
What a full application involves
The material considerations on solar farm applications are predictable: the agricultural land classification of the site, landscape and visual impact, heritage assets, ecology and biodiversity net gain, flood risk, glint and glare near an aerodrome, construction traffic, the cumulative effect where other projects are nearby, and whether the development is reversible at the end of the lease. The planning practice guidance on renewable and low carbon energy on gov.uk is the starting point, checked September 2026, and it is short enough to read yourself. The developer normally carries the cost and the risk of the application, which is part of what the option agreement buys. Planning history matters as much as merit, both the history of the site and the history of the authority: one that refuses solar farms at appeal is a different prospect from one that has consented four in three years.
| What you are doing | Consent route | The point to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Rooftop array on a farm building | Often permitted development, Part 14 Class J | Conditions on siting, protrusion and removal apply |
| Standalone ground-mounted array in a curtilage | Permitted development up to nine square metres | Class K is a shed scale right, not a field scale one |
| Solar farm below 50MW in England | Full application to the local planning authority | Screened for environmental impact assessment |
| Solar farm at 50MW or above in England | Development consent order, Planning Inspectorate | A nationally significant infrastructure project |
| New agricultural building for the farm | Prior approval under Part 6, within floor area limits | The right most often confused with the solar rights |
Best and Most Versatile land, and why the grade matters
The Agricultural Land Classification grades farmland from 1 to 5 by how much its physical characteristics limit what it can grow, and grades 1, 2 and 3a together form the Best and Most Versatile category, usually shortened to BMV land.
Natural England maintains the classification. Grade 1 is excellent quality agricultural land with very minor limitations, grade 2 very good, grade 3 splits into 3a good and 3b moderate, grade 4 poor and grade 5 very poor. Climate, site and soil set the grade: rainfall, altitude, slope, flood risk, texture, depth, stoniness and drainage. It measures flexibility rather than current yield, which is why a field in grass can still be grade 2.
That classification is where most solar farm applications are won or lost. National policy asks decision makers to take the economic and other benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land into account, and the planning practice guidance asks applicants proposing large solar projects on greenfield land to show poorer quality ground has been used in preference to higher quality ground, and that the scheme still allows continued agricultural use or encourages biodiversity. Solar farms on BMV land have to justify themselves. Solar farms on grade 3b or 4 rarely fight that battle.
The published regional ALC maps are coarse, so developers commission a site specific soil survey and that report is what the analysis actually turns on. Grade is also one material consideration among several: a grade 4 site inside a designated landscape, or with no grid capacity within reach, is still not a project.
Food production and energy production on the same fields
Government treats food security and renewable energy as objectives to be balanced on the same land rather than as a choice between the two.
The public argument about solar farms on farmland is framed as food against power, and the framing does a lot of work. Ministers have restated that solar projects must fit in with food security, and the official position is that land taken by solar installations is a very small share of the agricultural area, that it should fall mainly on lower grades, and that a site returns to agriculture when the lease ends. Defra and the energy department both publish on this. Read the government's own report on food security rather than either campaign's account of it, checked September 2026.
Both things are true at once, which is why the food security argument never resolves. Nationally, solar energy production occupies a fraction of one percent of the agricultural area, so the effect on food production at country level is small, and renewable energy and climate change commitments push the other way. Locally, one scheme can take several hundred acres out of a parish for forty years, and to the people living there that is not a rounding error. Campaign material claims that solar farms are swallowing prime land, the national statistic says otherwise, and the village meeting is settled by neither.
There is a version that keeps agriculture and energy production on the same ground. Sheep graze beneath and between the rows on many operational solar farms, margins and hedgerows are planted for biodiversity and for climate change adaptation, and raised or widely spaced arrays leave room for cropping. That is agrivoltaics, it is better established in Europe and the United States than here, and the research on agricultural yield is worth reading before anyone claims it settles the argument.
How much do farmers get for having solar panels on their land?
Rent on a solar lease is set by private negotiation, so no published figure per acre is reliable and the drivers matter more than any headline number.
We will not invent a number, because the ones circulating are either sales material or one deal repeated until it sounds like a market. What follows is what rent responds to, in order.
- The grid connection. Export capacity at the nearest point of connection, the cable distance, and what the network operator charges to reinforce. This dominates: two identical fields five miles apart can be a project and a non project on it alone.
- The planning case. Land grade, landscape designation, heritage, ecology and the authority's record. A site a developer believes it can consent is worth more than one it hopes it can.
- The parcel. Size, shape, slope, aspect, flood zone and construction access. Contiguous area beats total area, because a scheme wants one block.
- The structure of the deal. The option length and whether it is paid, the lease term, the rent review, any revenue share, and who funds decommissioning.
- Competition. Whether one developer is looking at your fields or three are, and whether the connection is scarce enough that competing projects want it.
A commercial rooftop scheme pays in a different currency. There is no rent, but the energy is consumed at the price you would otherwise have paid your supplier, which is several times the wholesale value of an exported unit. Our cost and payback page sets out how that is measured on a real holding, and the roof calculator gives a first look before anyone visits.
What to ask before you sign an option agreement
An option agreement gives a developer the right to take a lease of your land at a later date, so the document you sign first is the one that decides what happens.
The pattern is standard. A developer secures an option over the land, often for several years, while it pursues a grid connection and planning permission. If both land, it exercises the option. If either fails, it walks away. During the option period your ability to sell, to borrow against the land or to change its use is constrained by what you signed. None of the following is legal advice. It is the list to put in front of a solicitor who does this work.
- The option period. How long, whether it extends unilaterally, and what you are paid for it.
- The lease term and the rent. Length, review mechanism, indexation, and whether anything is linked to generation or revenue.
- The exact land. The plan, acreage, access routes, cable easements, and what is tied up beyond the array.
- Assignment. Who ends up as your tenant. Solar projects change hands, and the party that signed is rarely the one operating forty years later.
- Decommissioning. Who removes the installations and restores the land, and what security sits behind that promise.
- Existing arrangements. Tenancies, mortgages, stewardship agreements and anything your lender must consent to.
Use your own land agent and solicitor, instructed and paid by you. First conversations are usually free and worth having before you reply to the letter, whatever deadline it carries.
Ask about generation for the farm itself
If you want cheaper power on the holding rather than rent from a developer, send the postcode and the buildings you would consider. We come back with what those roofs can carry, what they would generate against your consumption, and what it costs.
No survey fee and no obligation to proceed.
Questions about solar panels on agricultural land
- Do you need planning permission to put solar panels on agricultural land?
- A field of solar panels needs full planning permission, because no permitted development right reaches that far. Below 50MW in England the local planning authority decides; at 50MW and above it is a nationally significant infrastructure project decided by the Secretary of State. Installing solar panels on farm buildings is a different question and often falls inside permitted development under Part 14 of the General Permitted Development Order. Listed buildings, scheduled monuments and designated landscapes cut those rights back or remove them.
- What is the 7 year rule for agricultural land?
- There is no seven year rule in English planning law, which is worth saying plainly. People asking usually mean one of two real rules. The first is how long unauthorised development stands before enforcement is time barred: in England now ten years for a breach on or after 25 April 2024, under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, and four years before that date. The second is the agricultural use test on converting a farm building to a dwelling, which looks at use on or before 20 March 2013 or for ten years since.
- What can I put on agricultural land without planning permission?
- Permitted development on an agricultural unit sits in Part 6 of the General Permitted Development Order, and it is narrower than most landowners expect. Above the size threshold it allows buildings and works reasonably necessary for agriculture within a floor area limit, subject to prior approval. It does not allow a change of use away from agriculture, so it does not allow solar farms. Designated land and heritage assets restrict it further, and the cost of getting this wrong is an enforcement notice.
- How much do farmers get for having solar panels on their land?
- Rent under a solar lease is negotiated privately and is published nowhere reliable, so any figure per acre online is somebody's guess or somebody's marketing. What moves it: export capacity and the distance and cost of the grid connection, the strength of the planning case including the land grade, the size and shape of the parcel, the option period and its terms, and how many developers want that same connection. Instruct your own land agent and solicitor. The developer's agent is a good professional working for somebody else.
- What is the 20% rule for solar panels?
- No rule in United Kingdom planning or grid connection policy is known as the 20 percent rule, so nothing on a farm turns on it. Where the phrase means anything real it is an overseas agrivoltaic standard capping how much agricultural output a site may lose, or a rule of thumb about array coverage. Neither is a legal test here. If someone quotes it as one, ask which instrument it comes from.
Lenzie Consulting Ltd arranges the survey, the design and the installation through an MCS-certified partner. We are not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and we do not give financial, tax, legal or planning advice. Take your own professional advice before signing anything.