This seems to be happening more and more frequently. There are three common situations that you may be in:

1. You want to bring grid power to a new building or load, such as a new café or EV charger and you have applied to the grid for a quote;
2. You have, or plan to increase the electrical load at your holiday park and have applied to the grid for a supply increase;
3. You have notified the grid that you wish to install renewables at your property and they inform you that upgrade works will be required.

In any of these situations, that upgrade costs can be extortionate. Often, we see quotes that rise to six figures for the network operator to upgrade the local network. Guess who is asked to foot the bill.

Thankfully, solar for agriculture can help.

We can provide solar for holiday parks that will reduce the demand you place on the grid by configuring the system to ‘peak shave’ and supply power when your demand is highest. You can increase its reliability further by adding a backup generator and charging the batteries from the grid when demand is low, to supplement low renewables generation in the winter.

For larger-scale applications, we can even transfer all your loads to a containerised energy storage system. This manages all your loads, renewables, batteries and backup generator. The grid supplies a trickle charge when required to give you reliable, clean power. For more information on how this works, click here.

With solar costs so low now, the payback time and money saving potential of these systems is very impressive.

The amount you will save depends on various factors, such as your electricity costs, size and position of system, etc.

If you are installing the system to avoid an extortionate grid connection cost, the payback time could even be instant!

Solar for agriculture requires little maintenance, other than cleaning to remove dirt and debris that affects their generation.

It’s recommended that the system components and electrical installation undergo an inspection every five years.

Products with moving components, such as a wind turbine or a backup generator, should be services regularly.

Xerogrid offers maintenance and monitoring agreements to give you peace of mind that your system will continue to work at its best.

Solar for agriculture doesn’t get the 0% VAT rate, so it is best if you are VAT registered to avoid this significant cost.

When you pay corporation tax, you can claim capital allowances for plants and machinery, including renewable energy systems. Click here to find out more.

If you are grid-connected, you can also earn money for any excess renewable electricity that you generate but do not use, through the SEG (Smart Export Guarantee) scheme. This means an electricity supplier will pay you per unit that you export. The rates can vary significantly: If you think you could get a better rate, Xerogrid can help you broker industry-leading rates. We can even help you to get a smart meter installed if your energy supplier isn’t offering this.

This can be a tough decision. Generally speaking, if you have a grid connection, it is usually best to keep it and use it.

Going off grid can be great if you want to reduce your reliance on the big energy companies, avoid a standing charge and enjoy energy independence and resilience against blackouts and grid outages.

It may also be the only option for many agricultural property owners, if they have received very high grid connection or upgrade quotes from the network operator.

However, developing a sufficient and reliable, fully off grid system can present a significant expense compared to a grid-connected system. You will also be reliant on a backup generator at certain points of the year, which is more expense to run and maintain. The grid is also a lot greener and lower carbon than running a generator in the UK.

If you are unsure whether going off grid is the right option for you, Xerogrid can provide expert advice that will make the decision easier.

It can. It depends on the size of the loads and the power capacity of the system.

Xerogrid can plan a system to meet your requirements, whatever these may be.

In short, no.

That doesn’t mean that you will be able to run off renewable electricity 100% of the time; you will need a generator for backup when the solar or wind generation is insufficient.

However, we will plan your system to maximise the amount of clean, free electricity that you generate. No one wants to be burning expensive fossil fuels when they don’t need to!

Usually, with solar for agriculture, you won’t need planning permission.

When you install solar on a pitched roof, panels that are at least 20cm from the external edge of the roof, and do not go higher than the top of the roof, are covered under permitted development. This rule is in place to prevent dangerous uplift in windy conditions.

If you’re installing solar on a flat roof, it must be at least one metre from any external edge. Also, they must not protrude higher than one metre from the highest point of the roof.

Ground-mounted arrays (in gardens, etc), can be up to 9m squared under permitted development. In reality, this is only around 3 or 4 panels, so you’ll probably need to obtain planning permission for ground-mounts.

You can have one wind turbine per property under permitted development, but the rules can be challenging to follow. The turbine can be a maximum of 3 metres above the top of the roof (excluding chimneys) or 15 metres high in total, whichever is lower. It also cannot be less than 5 metres from any boundary.

If you need assistance, Xerogrid offer a Planning Application Service. Click here to find out more.

You won’t need to apply when your system will not be able to connect to the grid, even if the rest of the property can. However, if your system can ever connect to the grid, you will need to apply.

For systems with a total possible AC generation of 16 amps per phase or less, you can notify the network operator after the installation has taken place. This is called a G98 notification.

If it will be larger than this, you will need to apply to the network operator prior to install and await their permission. You then need to notify them after the installation. This is called a G99 notification.

Xerogrid Limited offers a grid connection service, which allows you to pass responsibility for the whole process to us.