Farm Solar Panels Australia: A Practical Guide for Farmers

Most residential solar systems are limited by roof space. A typical suburban house fits a 6.6kW system and the owners need to think carefully about panel placement and shading from neighbours' trees.

Farms have none of those problems. A standard machinery shed has 200–400 square metres of unshaded north-facing roof. That is enough for 40–80kW of panels without touching any other building. Add the dairy, the hay shed, and the workshop, and you could easily fit 100kW or more across the property.

The other advantage is load profile. Dairy farms run milking machines, vacuum pumps, and refrigeration compressors from early morning through the afternoon. Irrigation pumps run during the day. Shearing sheds, grain dryers, and cold storage all pull heavy loads during peak solar hours. This means most of the solar power you generate gets consumed on site rather than exported to the grid at a low feed-in tariff.

Self-consumption is where the real savings are. Every kilowatt-hour you use from your panels saves you 30–45c on your bill, compared to the 5–10c you would get by exporting it. On a farm, it is not unusual to self-consume 70–85% of generation, which is far higher than the 30–40% typical for a residential system.

The right approach is to look at your last 12 months of electricity bills and work backwards. Your installer should do a load analysis to match the system to your actual consumption patterns, not just slap panels on the roof. For a detailed look at commercial system pricing, see our commercial solar cost guide.

On a farm, you have a genuine choice. Most suburban homes only have the roof, but farmers often have spare paddock area and plenty of shed roof space.

Roof-mounted panels are the cheaper option. You are using existing structure, so the racking costs are lower and the install is quicker. If your shed roof faces north (or even north-west) and is in decent condition, this is usually where to start. The main thing to check is the structural integrity of the shed. Older farm sheds were not always engineered for the extra load, so you may need a structural assessment.

Ground-mounted arrays cost roughly 10–20% more than an equivalent roof system because you are building the mounting structure from scratch. But they come with advantages. You can orient them perfectly north at the ideal tilt angle. You can place them close to the meter board or the loads they are feeding. Maintenance is easier because you are not climbing onto a roof. And if you need to expand later, you just extend the array.

Many farmers I work with start with roof panels on the main shed to keep costs down, then add a ground-mount array a year or two later when they have seen the savings and want more capacity.

Irrigation is one of the biggest electricity costs on many Australian farms, and it is also one of the best applications for solar. Pumps run during the day, they draw a consistent load, and in many cases the pump site is far from the grid connection.

There are two approaches. If the pump is near your main meter, you can power it from a standard grid-connected solar system along with everything else on the property. Simple.

For remote bore pumps in a far paddock, a standalone solar pumping system is often the better option. These use a dedicated solar array (typically 5–15kW for a bore pump) connected to a variable frequency drive (VFD) that runs the pump at variable speed depending on how much sun is available. No battery needed. The pump runs whenever there is enough sun, filling a header tank or storage dam. The water storage acts as your "battery". This setup avoids the cost of trenching power lines across the property, which can run $20–$50 per metre over long distances.

A solar bore pump system with a 10kW array and VFD controller typically costs $15,000–$25,000 installed. Compare that to running three-phase power 500 metres across a paddock at $30 per metre ($15,000 just for the trenching) plus the ongoing electricity costs, and solar starts looking very attractive.

Most farms that have existing grid connections should stay grid-connected. Going fully off-grid means adding a large battery bank and backup generator, which pushes costs up significantly. If you already have the grid, use it as your backup and battery in one.

Off-grid makes sense in two situations: when you are setting up a new property that has no grid connection (and the cost of getting one quoted at $50,000 or more), or when you are on a long, unreliable single-wire earth return (SWER) line that drops out regularly.

A full off-grid system for a farmhouse and basic shed loads typically needs 15–20kW of solar, 40–60kWh of battery storage, and a backup diesel generator. Total cost is in the $80,000–$120,000 range. That is steep, but compare it to a $150,000 grid connection quote for a remote block, and it can make sense. If you are weighing up whether a battery is worth it, the maths changes quite a bit when you are off-grid, because the battery is not optional.

Farm solar systems benefit from economies of scale. The bigger the system, the lower the per-watt cost. While a residential 6.6kW system might cost $1.30–$1.60 per watt, a 50kW farm system typically comes in at $1.00–$1.30 per watt, and 100kW systems can be under $1.00 per watt.

The federal Small-scale Technology Certificate (STC) rebate applies to systems up to 100kW. For a 50kW system in, say, regional Queensland, the STC discount is roughly $12,000–$15,000, which comes off the price at point of sale. Some states have additional programs for agricultural businesses. Check our commercial solar rebates guide for the latest state-by-state breakdown.

Here is a rough cost guide for farm systems after STC rebates.

This is where farm solar gets really interesting. Under the instant asset write-off, eligible businesses can deduct the full cost of the solar system in the financial year it is installed. For a farming business, that means the net cost after the tax deduction is substantially lower than the sticker price.

Say you install a 50kW system for $45,000 after STCs. If your farming business is in the 37% marginal tax bracket, you claim $16,650 back through the write-off. Your real out-of-pocket cost is $28,350 for a system that saves you $15,000 or more per year. That is under a two-year payback.

Timing matters. If you install before 30 June, you can claim the deduction in the current financial year. Plenty of farmers I talk to push to get their system commissioned before end of financial year specifically for this reason. Talk to your accountant about how the write-off interacts with farm management deposits and other primary producer concessions.

For larger systems that exceed the write-off threshold, the ATO depreciation rules let you claim the cost over the system's effective life. The simplified depreciation pool (15% year one, 30% thereafter) is usually the best option for small farming businesses.

Farm solar is not the same as residential solar. You need an installer who understands three-phase systems, commercial-scale inverters, agricultural load profiles, and the practicalities of working on rural properties (like getting a crane to a shed in the middle of a paddock).

Look for installers with specific experience in agricultural solar, not just a residential company trying to move into the commercial space. Ask to see examples of farm installs they have completed. A good installer will do a proper site assessment, review at least 12 months of power bills, and size the system to match your actual usage, not just fill every available roof.

Get at least three quotes and compare them carefully. Our guide on how to vet a solar installer walks through exactly what to check. For commercial-scale systems, also make sure the installer handles the network application process, as systems over 30kW often require approval from your distribution network.