Investing in renewable energy – pros and cons for UK poultry company

Chickens love to scratch underneath solar panels, and they encourage them to roam further into the field. Photo: Andrea van Schaik Photography

Solar panels are paying off for Cumbrian free-range egg company, enabling the firm to integrate them with food production.

The Lakes Free Range Egg Co is a large-scale producer of organic and free-range eggs with the 150-acre home farm housing around 90,000 birds with additional farms across Eden Valley. To support natural behaviours, trees and native shrubs have been planted, providing the hens with a more comfortable outdoor environment.

CEO David Brass wanted to reduce energy costs as the business expanded, and at the same time cut emissions and maintain the highest animal welfare standards possible. This led him to adopt large-scale solar panel installations.

On the roofs and in the fields

His first move into solar power was to put panels on the roofs of the chicken sheds. He installed around 50kW of capacity, doubling it a few years later. When roof space had already been maximised, David mounted the panels at least a metre off the ground at an angle of around 35 degrees in the fields.

David said solar panels work well with poultry: “Chickens love to scratch underneath them. They don’t actually like open spaces because everything eats them. They are at the bottom of the food chain. The panels encourage them to roam further into the field, giving them shelter, and a place to run if a buzzard or even a helicopter flies over.”

In addition to providing shelter and security for the free-range flock, David rents out the fields with the panels during the spring, allowing a flock of Texel sheep to graze lightly. Through summer the fields are left to wildflowers before the sheep return mid-August once the flowers have mostly finished.

Multiple land use

At present, the field-based solar panels cover about a hectare of the home farm, which is not an issue for David given the size of the business: “It’s such a small proportion of our land. For me, it’s a great example of multiple land use. The chickens and sheep both use the fields with the solar panels as normal and we’re not losing anything.”

Most of the power is used during daylight hours by the chicken sheds and the egg-packing facility, but a back-up battery, capable of storing around 0.75 megawatts, ensures power is available outside these hours. “This is primarily about powering our operations. You don’t get enough back from network providers to make much money selling extra power. We can export about 250 kilowatts, but I would put that into the battery and using it ourselves,” David said.

He noted that a large solar park or a field of panels designed mainly for income generation would likely face greater challenges in securing planning approval.

Public opposition and a more open-minded approach

David has encountered public opposition from some members of the rural community: “There have been planning applications near me in the Lake District for solar farms of around 15 acres – well screened with big hedges so you can barely see the panels. However, the level of objections has been unreal.”

Another frustration for David is that, despite seeing firsthand how his birds use the solar panels for cover, he can’t include them in the farm’s official Animal and Plant Health Agency range area stocking calculations. He hopes authorities and decision-makers will take a more open-minded approach to the role solar panels can play in livestock farming in the future.

He believes his model – using solar to cut energy costs while occasionally earning a small financial boost from surplus power – would work well for many nature-friendly farmers. “Solar panels fit well with most grazing systems, particularly for animals like sheep or free-range chickens. You just need to make sure they are high enough for the animals to graze beneath them while unable to rub against them. I do think it could work for some arable systems too, though you’d need to be able to move big machinery around them,” he added.