Building a solar panel farm on empty land

[Mightymarcoose]

I am thinking about buying a house that comes with a few acres of land in the country. Would using the land to build a solar panel farm provide a good return on investment. It's not something I have looked into, and is probably quite an unusual question, but is there anyone out there with experience of this?

 

[profitxchange]

Hi You need to look at the economics carefully. I would suggest you get quotes from the solar farm contractors. I do not think it is something you should attempt yourself. Need to get a proper connection to the grid through which to sell your surplus electricity will be difficult to do yourself.

 

[Mightymarcoose]

Yeah it's definitely not something would be qualified to do myself. Any ideas whether it is a viable source of income once you've accounted for contractor fees, etc? I'm just thinking what to do with the land if I do buy the house. Seems silly having it lying around doing nothing, if planning permission isn't granted.

 

[ChrisRM]

I'm no expert and I've not dealt with commercial solar farms to know the nuances but dealing with environmental type property is my 9-5. Here are some issues that come to mind initially:

Grid connection - I have heard that you need to make sure the connection to the grid is good. Some rural locations are not great for this and therefore not suitable.

Planning - this is always a constraint. You'll need to discuss your ideas with the local council planning dept. They will probably have policies online about solar panels which you can review beforehand. Consider the neighbouring uses and whether solar panels are suitable.

Purchase agreements - you will need someone to buy the power off you. I suspect the go to is the Grid. But there are also national green energy companies (Ecotricity, Good Energy, etc) that may be interested.

Edit: Words.

 

[Josette]

Not quite what you had in mind but what about bees? Turn the land back to meadow, keep bees, or provide the space for other local bee keepers. Put's the land to good use and helps the bees out. And, if you have lots of honey you can make mead! And of course sell the honey, I just really like mead!

 

[Mark T Jones]

Planning is pretty big deal.

Payback on solar is nowhere near as good as it was. Suppliers will give you some guidance on this - though you need to read it very carefully. They also won't mention ongoing costs such as insurance and maintenance

 

[Talay]

This ship has sailed I'm afraid.

 

[Thermodynamic Man]

Where is this bit of land located?