How Shropshire farmer diversified his low-producing land with solar panels

On an arable enterprise based in rural Shropshire, Wykey Farm owner Simon Gittins, saw an opportunity to produce renewable energy to complement his farming system and create additional income.

Installing an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant 11 years ago was Wykey Farm owner, Simon Gittins first experience of diversification, producing electricity to benefit his arable enterprise based near Shrewsbury in Shropshire.

Mr Gittins produces a traditional rotation consisting of wheat, oilseed rape, maize, sugar beet, lucerne and hybrid rye. The farm is predominantly on sandy loam-type soils, totalling 1,450 hectares of arable ground.

Mr Gittins initially installed the AD plant to generate electricity for farm use and export for an additional income stream.

However, the heat by-product was quickly captured to complement his arable enterprise. The plant produces 1.9 megawatts of electricity and an equal amount of heat by-product, which is used to heat the digester, pasteurise the outgoing digestate and power two drying floors on the farm.

He says: We use the drying floors right through the summer from April to October. We start drying the forage rye in April and we dry it to make hay which is then baled stationary and sold into the dairy market.

We then dry lucerne for the rest of the summer, fitting in wheat and OSR crops if it is needed."

As the demand for drying facilities increased within the arable enterprise, Mr Gittins installed his second renewable energy project, a 4.8MW ground source heat pump system to provide power for three additional drying floors.

The drying floors require lots of electricity through the summer, resulting in a drop in exported electricity. Mr Gittins saw this gap as an opportunity to introduce another renewable project that could compensate for additional summer usage.

Solar project

To generate the additional energy required to power all five drying floors and to produce enough power to maintain a stable export of electricity through the year, Mr Gittins then had the idea of introducing ground-mounted solar panels as a third diversification project.

The solar panel project began in April 2022, when Mr Gittins commissioned Worcester-based renewables company Alt-Group, to plan, construct and maintain the solar panels on a contractual basis.

The process of planning a new solar project site starts by identifying how energy will be used, consulting with the grid to determine what availability and network saturation exists, consulting with the local council for planning permission and determining the feasibility of the project, says Alt-Group.

When negotiating with the grid, we were limited to 1.9MW export, but we were able to do a deal between Alt-Group and the [distribution network operator] DNO to allow us to put another megawatt of solar in that would mirror our high summer electricity usage, says Mr Gittins.

Planning process

Initially, Mr Gittins had planned to site the solar panels on higher producing land, classified 3a (good quality agricultural land). However, he decided to move the site 600m away to a lower classification of land, 3b (moderate quality agriculture land).

This site alteration aided the application as councils are less likely to accept planning on more productive arable land due to the potential impact on food production, says Mr Gittins.

The planning process was relatively simple because we chose a location that made sense, we thought about the issues and boxed them off in the planning.

Typically, the three issues with planning for solar are visual such as neighbours, what sort of quality land and what can you do environmentally with the land itself.

If you can box those three off, everyone seems to be happy, he says.

Phil Mole, chief executive of Alt-Group, says the planning application at Wykey Farm was submitted as a diversification proposal, which is usually supported, making the process straightforward.

Some planning proposals are returned with stipulations such as screening from visual disturbance or additions for environmental impacts. As Mr Gittins plot is deep within Wykey Farm, visual disturbance does not affect it.

However, his application required the planting of a wildflower bee and bird mixture between the solar panels to adhere to stipulations in the planning, says Mr Mole.

Alt-Group constructed the panels wider apart than standard sites, to allow Mr Gittins access with his drill to plant the mix. The wider sections between the panels also enable a secondary usage for the land as Mr Gittins plans to graze his neighbours sheep between the panels to control the drilled mixes.

After the planning process was approved and the stipulations factored into the plan, a total of 2,222 panels were assembled within a 1.6ha site, producing roughly 980,000 kilowatt hours per year, according to Alt-Group.

With this capability, Mr Gittins can export electricity to the grid all year round, gaining not only from the export income, but also reducing the effects of the volatile energy market on the enterprise.

We export all year round as 1.9MW is enough to keep about 3,500 houses running on electricity, he adds.

Mr Mole says: We are finding some of the larger solar projects on higher grade arable land are contentious at the moment, so Simons four-acre [1.6ha] is seen as a medium-sized plot, so it makes it much easier to pass through planning.

Funding options

Alt-Group chief commercial officer, Chris Smith, says planning can be a straightforward process, with the capability of the grid connections being the largest barrier for solar projects.

There can be significant upgrade costs associated with being able to connect the solar sites to the grid and currently some customers are feeling that the Government should compensate the charges.

We are hoping the Significant Code Review (SCR) will change that and we are hopeful that levels of support coming from the Government will enable some larger projects to go ahead, says Mr Smith.

The SCR came into force on April 1 and is based upon reducing the grid connection charges for some generators, in a hope of making new renewable projects more feasible.

Currently, all grants for solar panel purchases have ceased, however, Mr Smith says that many finance companies are pro-renewable energy so funds can often be raised with minimal barriers.

With interest rates rising over the last 18 months, this has become more of a consideration to new clients, however, there are still profitable options particularly if you are still able to borrow at lower rates, he says.