Solar Power: Land Use
(asked on 5th October 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government on how many acres of (1) Grade 1, (2) Grade 2, and (3) Grade 3a, farmland have solar panels been installed.
Answered by
Baroness Curran
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that development proposals should take into account the best and most versatile agricultural land, which is land in grades 1, 2 and 3a of the agricultural land classification system.
As recorded in Agricultural Land Use In England, the total area of land on agricultural holdings used for solar panels was 9.4 thousand hectares in 2026, showing little change since 2025. Just under half of this area (4.4 thousand hectares) is also grazed or used for agriculture production and the remaining 5.0 thousand hectares is used for solar panels but not for agricultural production.
The Government is now in the final stages of collating further data on the use of agricultural land by renewable energy projects, and we expect to publish that information this year.