Farm solar case studies in Ireland

• Hickey's Home Farm (Gerard Hickey)380 kW

  Louth · Tillage, potatoes and horticulture · Six 600-tonne cold stores

  Cost

  €380,000

  Grant

  LEADER 50%, €190,000

  Share of use

  231,000 kWh of 813,000 kWh yard use in 2025

  Payback

  Three years

  Source: Irish Farmers Journal

• O'Shea Farms, Piltown250 kW

  Kilkenny · Tillage, potatoes and horticulture · Potato store for up to 12,500 t

  Cost

  €287,500 project (Interreg Europe summary, snippet only)

  Grant

  SEAI Better Energy Communities (20% per Interreg Europe summary)

  Saving

  About €19,000 a year actual, against a forecast €25,000

  Share of use

  About 10% of the business's energy

  Payback

  10 to 11 years actual, against a forecast of seven to eight years

  Source: Irish Farmers Journal

• Belview Eggs (Dermot and Nicola Herlihy)100 kW

  Louth · Poultry · 140,000 hens

  Grant

  TAMS (amount not stated)

  Payback

  5 years

  Source: OHK Energy

• Carrickboy farm (Donal and Dermot Brady), Ardagh100 kW

  Longford · Pig · 2,000 sows

  Cost

  Over €100,000

  Grant

  SEAI Better Energy Communities 30%

  Share of use

  Up to 80% of needs on a sunny day

  Payback

  About five years (Local Power calculation)

  Source: Irish Farmers Journal

• Nigel Flynn, Clones74 kW

  Monaghan · Poultry · 145,000 broilers · Battery: 16.6 kWh

  Cost

  About €45,000 in 2019; about €30,000 for the 2024 expansion

  Grant

  SEAI Better Energy Communities about 30% (2019); TAMS Solar Capital Investment Scheme (2024)

  Share of use

  Bills down about 30%

  Payback

  First system three years; expansion estimated at two and a half years

  Source: Irish Farmers Journal

• Laurlstown Farm (Donal Callery)63 kW

  Dairy · 450 cows · Battery: 50 kWh

  Saving

  Around €16,000 a year

  Source: FarmGen

These are the figures each farmer or installer gave. Some are measured from bills and some are estimates, and electricity prices differ between the years they were reported. Use them as a range, not a promise. For current prices see farm solar panel cost.

• Dairy: Milking, cooling and water heating run twice a day, every day, so a dairy farm uses most of what its panels produce.
• Pig: Ventilation, heat lamps and feed systems run around the clock, which suits a large array.
• Poultry: Fans, lighting and feed lines run all day, and the long house roofs take many panels.
• Tillage, potatoes and horticulture: Cold stores and grain dryers are the big loads. Cold storage runs through summer, when panels produce most.

TAMS 3 pays 60% on systems up to 62 kWp. See farm solar grants for which grant fits which size.

• "savings of around €16,000 a year" Laurlstown Farm (Donal Callery), dairy (FarmGen)
• "half my total electricity consumption for the year" David Foran, Waterford, dairy (Sunstream Energy)

Leasing land to a solar developer is a separate decision from putting panels on a shed. The developer builds a grid-scale solar farm and pays rent. The farm does not use the power.

• These figures are for leasing land to utility-scale solar developers, which is a different proposition from an on-farm system.
• Lease length is given as "25 years or more" in the Teagasc guide and "around 40 years" in the Irish Farmers Journal on 30 September 2026.
• The option period is five years, extendable by five (Irish Farmers Journal, 30 September 2026).
• Rent is typically linked to inflation (Teagasc guide).
• Land take is about two hectares per MW (Teagasc guide).
• Panels cover about 40% of a site (Solar Ireland).
• Lease and option income is fully taxed with no expenses offset.
• Teagasc example: a 20-year lease at €2,200 per hectare gives €44,000 per hectare, or €26,400 per hectare after 40% income tax.
• Keeping panels on under 50% of the holding matters for agricultural relief and retirement relief (Teagasc guide).
• Barry Caslin of Teagasc: "You will probably lose about 30% of your entitlements on that land".
• A maintenance income of around €200 per acre was discussed for some arrangements (Irish Farmers Journal, 30 September 2026).
• Greenhills Dairies in Killeagh, Co. Cork (1,100 cows) agreed a 250 MW project with Ørsted, reported 19 March 2025. No rent was disclosed.
• The Teagasc rent figure is per hectare and the source did not convert it to a per-acre figure.

The national planning register holds 63 applications to 30 September 2026 for solar panels that supply a farm. Councils granted 59 and refused 1. 45 are on roofs and 12 are ground-mounted.

The number is small because solar on a farm building roof is usually exempt from planning. See the planning rules for farm buildings. The applications that name the farm or state a size:

"Granted" is permission to build. A scheme is shown as built only where a published report says so.

• Farms: taken from the farming press, Teagasc and installers' own case studies. Each row names its source.
• Figures: as reported. Nothing has been estimated or filled in where a source was silent.
• Planning: every application in the national planning register that mentions solar was read, and those supplying a farm were kept.

Data last reviewed October 2026. Installers are named as the source reports them.