Cut input costs. Add an income line.
Electricity is one of the few farm input costs you can permanently fix. Solar generated and used on site displaces power bought at full delivered rates, and with agricultural margins under constant pressure, a predictable saving that runs for 25 years or more is worth more on a farm than almost anywhere else.
Then there is the diversification angle. Export income from surplus generation is a steady, weather-linked revenue line that arrives regardless of commodity prices, and larger ground-mount schemes on lower-grade land can become a diversification enterprise in their own right.
Many farm buildings are steel portal frame or timber structures with limited spare capacity, and plenty of farmers have already been told their roof will not take panels. That is often not the end of the story: our structural approach for marginal roofs applies directly to farm buildings.
Farm loads that match the sun.
Grain Drying & Stores
Drying and ventilation loads peak in late summer, precisely when generation is strong and days are long.
Dairy
Milking, cooling and washing loads run every single day of the year, with milk cooling among the biggest single draws.
Poultry & Livestock
Ventilation, heating, lighting and feed systems run continuously, with summer ventilation peaks matching peak generation.
Cold Storage & Packing
Produce cooling and packhouse operations draw hardest through harvest, when the roof is producing most.
Irrigation & Pumping
Borehole and irrigation pumps run through the driest, sunniest weeks of the year.
Diversified Enterprises
Farm shops, holiday lets, offices and workshops on the yard all draw daytime power the roof can supply.
Rural funding exists. Most of it goes unclaimed.
Farming and rural businesses have access to funding routes most sectors do not: rural productivity and diversification grants, regional growth schemes and energy-focused programmes that come and go by area and by year. Knowing what is live in your district at the moment you apply is most of the battle.
Beaumanoir Ltd tracks these schemes continuously and has prepared successful rural and community grant applications including the technical evidence, energy calculations and business case that scoring panels want to see. Where a live scheme fits your project, we build the application with you.
Where grants do not apply, capital allowances, asset finance and, for larger schemes, power purchase agreements all remain on the table. We set out the realistic options with figures before you commit to anything.
Designed around the farming calendar.
Feasibility
Bills, buildings and yard layout reviewed, with a straight answer on whether solar stacks up for your holding.
Site Appraisal
Structural appraisal of candidate buildings, plus connection and supply capacity review.
Options & Grants
Right-sized options against your loads and roofs, with grant applications prepared where a live scheme fits.
Approvals
DNO and planning strategy, including ground-mount or listed building constraints where they apply.
Client-Side Oversight
Tender support and oversight of your chosen installer, programmed around harvest, lambing, housing and the rest of your year.
Where Beau Energy, our own installation division, is the right delivery route, we will say so and disclose that relationship in writing. You remain free to tender the installation elsewhere, and our advice is not conditional on you using Beau Energy.
Start with a straight answer.
Send us your electricity bills and a rough description of the yard. We will tell you honestly whether solar stacks up, which buildings suit it, and what funding is live in your area.
Prefer email? Write to [email protected] and attach your bills.