Farming Talk – January 24
Installing solar panels is not as profitable as it once was, either for homeowners or for landowners looking to host installations.
The Government’s Feed-in Tariffs (FIT) scheme – under which people received payments from their energy supplier for generating their own electricity – was closed to new applicants in March 2019 and its Renewables Obligation support for large-scale projects was axed in 2015.
But it is still worth considering either allowing solar installations on your land, or even installing them for yourself if the sums add up.
The UK now has a legal duty to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero within the next 30 years, meaning the market for sites for solar farms is likely to strengthen. And the cost of the panels and other equipment is falling.
It’s also worth noting that there is still a strong demand for the best sites with good grid connections, where solar farm operators will be keen to take a lease and pay good rents for doing so.
So hosting a solar farm on your land might well still represent a good diversification opportunity.
Tom Devey, Partner in the Agricultural & Rural Services team, FBC Manby Bowdler.
