Solar panels for farms in York
Around York the constraint is rarely the roof. It is the incoming supply and what the network will accept back. What decides a farm scheme here is the state of the roof sheets and the incoming supply, which is why the survey looks at both before anyone sizes an array.
840 kWh per kWp a year at this latitude, so a 500 kWp array models at about 420,000 kWh. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
Book a roof survey in YorkIllustrative layout for a unit of this size. Your own figures come from the roof survey.
Agricultural rooftop solar across North Yorkshire
What a farm roof near York generates
Modelled irradiation at this latitude is 1075 kWh per square metre a year in the plane of a shallow-pitched roof, which works out at 840 kWh for every kWp installed (EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss). That is about 5 percent below the mean across the areas we cover, so the case here rests on using the output on the holding rather than exporting it.
No solar scheme is recorded in this postcode district in the planning database. On a farm that usually means nothing has been built above the reporting threshold rather than that nothing has been built, because a roof array on a shed rarely appears in it.
Most of the buildings we look at here sit in the YO postcode area.
York is the planning authority for most holdings here, and it is the authority that decides whether an array on an agricultural building falls inside permitted development.
York ranks 3 of 8 towns we cover in North Yorkshire on modelled yield, against a national mean of 886 kWh per kWp. The county runs from 799 to 859, a spread of 60 kWh per kWp. On a 500 kWp array that is about 30,000 kWh a year between the strongest and weakest town in the county.
Grid connection through Northern Powergrid
Northern Powergrid operates the distribution network across North Yorkshire, so the export application goes to them. Anything larger than 3.68 kW per phase falls under G99, which means an application before commissioning rather than a notification afterwards. A constrained network is not the end of a scheme. Capping export costs little when the building already absorbs most of what the roof produces.
Across North Yorkshire the planning database records 151 solar schemes totalling 1723 MW, of which 18 are operational (REPD Q1 2026).
Send us the postcode
Tell us where the unit is and roughly how big the roof is. We come back with what it can carry, what it would generate against your consumption, and the three ways to pay for it.
Lenzie Consulting Ltd arranges the survey and passes your details to our MCS-certified installation partner so they can quote.
Questions about solar in York
- What would a 500 kWp array produce on a farm near York?
- Yes, and the figure matters more than the sunshine. At 840 kWh per kWp a year, a 500 kWp array on a York holding models at around 420,000 kWh. What changes the answer is how much of that the farm uses itself. Source: EU PVGIS v5.2, SARAH3, 10 degree pitch, 14 percent system loss.
- Which network operator handles the connection around York?
- Applications go to Northern Powergrid, who run the network across North Yorkshire. On a farm the incoming supply matters as much as their answer: a single phase supply caps what can be installed whatever the roof would take.
- What does York require for solar on an agricultural building?
- Roof-mounted panels on an agricultural building often fall under permitted development, subject to limits on projection above the roof plane and to the building not being listed or in a conservation area or National Park. We confirm the position with York before the design is finalised.