About solarpanelsforfarmbuildings.co.uk
UK specialists in solar panels for farm buildings. MCS-certified. NICEIC-registered. IWA-backed.
Specialist installers for UK farm buildings
We are SEO Dons Ltd — a UK commercial solar specialist operating across England, Wales, and Scotland, with a long track record of farm-building installations spanning dairy parlours, livestock sheds, grain stores, poultry units, pig finisher houses, polytunnels, equestrian arenas, and general-purpose farm workshops. solarpanelsforfarmbuildings.co.uk is the dedicated property of our farm-buildings practice — the technical, commercial, and operational team that focuses specifically on the unique demands of agricultural-building rooftop and ground-mount solar PV.
Why farm buildings — and only farm buildings — on this site
UK commercial solar installers generally fall into two camps. The generalist contractors, who install everything from offices to warehouses to barns to schools and learn each sector as they go; and the specialists, who develop deep expertise in one or two property types and refuse work outside their core competence. Farm buildings sit firmly in the second camp. The structural pattern of UK agricultural buildings — clear-span steel-portal frames, profiled metal cladding (or pre-2000 asbestos cement requiring re-cladding before PV), purlin spacings standardised across the major frame suppliers — is unlike anything in commercial property. The load profile of working farms — 24/7 dairy parlour cooling, seasonal grain drying, climate-controlled livestock houses, lighting and ventilation across vast clear-span buildings — is unlike any office, warehouse, or hospital. The planning context of agricultural land, the tenant-farmer landlord-consent process, the asbestos cement legacy, the capacity-constrained rural DNO networks, and the increasingly material supermarket Scope 3 supplier audit landscape all demand specialist knowledge that generalist installers simply don't carry.
We focus on farm buildings because we have spent more than a decade walking working farms, modelling half-hourly meter data from dairy parlours and grain stores, coordinating asbestos cement removal alongside re-cladding alongside PV install, and managing landlord-consent conversations with the Crown Estate, Church Commissioners, Wellcome Trust, NFU Mutual Estates, and a long tail of regional family estates and county council farm landlords. We do not install on supermarkets. We do not install on offices. We install on farm buildings.
Our team and approach
Our delivery team holds MCS commercial certification, NICEIC approved-contractor status, full RECC and TrustMark consumer-protection certifications, and the 10-year IWA insurance-backed workmanship warranty on every install. Our engineers carry NFU and TFA awareness as part of standard delivery — we understand the farming calendar (we schedule physical install work around calving, lambing, harvest, and shearing seasons), we work routinely with farm-building architects and frame suppliers (Shufflebottom, A C Bacon, Robinsons, Lonbridge among others), and we engage directly with landlord agents and their professional advisors to clear the consent workstream alongside the technical scope.
Our delivery model is independent of any specific panel or inverter manufacturer. We model every project across multiple panel options (JA Solar, Jinko, Longi, REC, Q Cells, Trina) and multiple inverter options (SolarEdge, SMA, Huawei, Fronius, Goodwe) based on the specific roof orientation, shading pattern, and electrical configuration of the host building. This means our quotes are not skewed by a manufacturer rebate or distributor relationship — they reflect what's actually best for the farm. We hold direct trade accounts with the major UK distributors (Segen, Midsummer Wholesale, City Plumbing/Solfex, BHC) and work routinely with specialist agricultural electrical contractors across every UK region.
What you get — beyond the install
Every farm-building install we deliver includes: a 10-year IWA insurance-backed workmanship warranty (transferable to incoming farm partners or new tenants); a 25-year manufacturer panel performance warranty (manufacturer-specific); a 10-year inverter warranty as standard, extendable to 20 years on request; a full digital handover pack containing PVSyst yield model, single-line electrical diagrams, structural calculations, planning consents (where applicable), G99 connection documentation, MCS certificate, asbestos waste consignment notes (where re-roof was part of scope), and ongoing remote monitoring portal access for the life of the system.
We also provide ongoing supplier-audit support documentation — annual generation reports, kWh-consumed-on-farm vs kWh-exported breakdowns, carbon factor reduction calculations, and trajectory documentation for SBTi or CDP Supply Chain submissions. Farms supplying Tesco, Sainsbury's, M&S, Waitrose, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl, Asda, Ocado, or Co-op increasingly need this documentation to maintain supplier programme membership — we generate it as standard.
The kind of farms we work with
Our typical farm client runs between 200 and 5,000 acres with a mix of buildings spanning dairy, livestock, arable, horticulture, or equestrian use. Approximately a third of our farm clients are tenant farmers operating on institutional or family-estate landlords; the remainder are owner-occupiers, often family-managed across two or three generations. We work routinely across England, Wales, and Scotland — Welsh and Scottish farms benefit from devolved grant frameworks (Welsh Rural Investment Scheme, Scottish Rural Investment Scheme) often with higher intervention rates than English equivalents. We are not currently active in Northern Ireland but can recommend trusted partners for projects there.
We work with farms whose objectives include: lowering grid electricity bills across the working buildings; capturing income from surplus generation via Smart Export Guarantee; meeting supermarket Scope 3 supplier-audit requirements; preparing the farm for future fleet electrification (ATVs, light pickups, eventually tractors); diversifying farm income via ground-mount lease on marginal land; combining roof refurbishment (asbestos cement removal and re-cladding) with PV to deliver both within a single capital decision; and positioning the holding for generational transfer with a modernised energy infrastructure that supports the next generation's commercial ambitions.
How we work
Every project starts with a free desk-based feasibility study. We pull half-hourly meter data, building dimensions, and rooftop drawings (or commission a drone survey), and we deliver an indicative system size per building, generation forecast, self-consumption ratio, and 25-year financial model within 7 working days. We do not charge for this stage — if the numbers don't work, we'll tell you honestly and walk away rather than push a marginal project.
If the numbers work, our engineers visit for a one-day structural and electrical survey. We typically walk every building you want assessed, drone-image where roof access is restricted, and pull load data from any installed half-hourly meters. We then deliver a fixed-price proposal with full PVSyst yield modelling per building, DCF financial model, and contract terms. From contract signature, most rooftop installs commission in 4–6 months; combined re-roof + PV installs typically 6–9 months; ground-mount or multi-MW projects 12–18 months. We submit the G99 grid connection application immediately after the structural survey to start the DNO clock — the connection process is usually the longest item in the timeline.
Honest about what we don't do
We don't install on residential rooftops. We don't install hot-water solar thermal (only solar PV electricity). We don't install on listed buildings without engaging the conservation officer early. We don't install on asbestos cement roofs without first removing the cement under HSE-licensed conditions. We don't install if the DNO will not connect the system within 24 months (we'll tell you upfront and recommend a no-export design or wait for grid reinforcement). We don't install on tenanted farms without the landlord's signed consent. We don't fabricate testimonials, review counts, or installation numbers — every claim on this site is defensible, and we will provide verifiable references on request.