Can I Build My Own Renewable Energy Project?
 Topic: Can i build my own renewable energy project |  Read Time: 6 mins |
 Landowner type:Independent landowners | Institutional landowners |  Energy: Onshore wind |
18th April 2025Are you a landowner exploring the idea of developing your own renewable energy project? You’re not alone.
We regularly hear from people with spare land, a sense of ambition and a growing interest in sustainability and environmental stewardship.
And most of them are asking us the same question: ‘Can I build my own renewable energy project?’
We completely understand where they’re coming from. A renewable energy project is an appealing prospect and can seem relatively easy to navigate.
Generate clean power. Earn near-passive income. Contribute to net-zero limits in the UK. Pay very little of the income the project generates to third parties. It’s ambitious and potentially very rewarding.
But here’s the honest answer that we’ll always stand by: Building your own renewable energy project is certainly possible. However, it’s not necessarily easy (or the best idea) for everyone.
For starters, everyone’s land is different. The process of building a new project is also expensive, and it involves jumping through a fair few hoops if you’re going it alone. Not everyone building their own project will have the financial capital or knowledge of the renewables sector to get things up and running.
Where Do We Come In?
We can help you realise the true potential of your land. We don’t develop projects ourselves, but we can partner you with experienced renewable energy developers who can bring a potential project to fruition without the hassle.
We pride ourselves on offering easy-to-action advice to guide you through a new project or help improve an existing one.
What Does It Take to Build Your Own Renewable Energy Project?
Developing your own renewable energy project might sound like a walk in the park. But in practice, it’s quite complex.
We often see landowner-developers dealing with Grid constraints, planning hurdles and rising build costs that often come out of the blue. They’re not surprising per se, but proof that there are a lot of moving parts to any new project.
A number of obstacles to overcome
We generally find that these are the biggest hurdles self-developing landowners face (regardless of their experience):
- Planning permission can be a major issue on any project. This is especially true for wind in England, though recent changes made in July 2024 are slowly making it easier to get a project off the ground.
- Grid access is also a challenge. We hope that planning permission changes will actually help shift the decade-long connection backlogs. But we won’t know this for a while. It’s also possible that easing planning permission guidelines will encourage more applications and make the backlog worse.
- Be aware that environmental surveys, legal agreements and feasibility assessments are all essential parts of any new project. They can be time-consuming and expensive, so bear this in mind.
- Raising enough capital for a large-scale project is tough unless you have deep pockets or investor backing. You can raise the capital for a wind farm through bank finance, angel investors or high net-worth individuals, but it’s not always easy and can cut into potential income down the line.
Even if you tick all of these boxes, the project might not be feasible. In our experience, typical developers rarely take on every site they assess, so it’s worth bearing this in mind.
It may sound somewhat harsh, but we generally don’t recommend farmers take up hairdressing, or hairdressers start farming.
Developing a project is no different. It’s a specialist job and you need to understand the complexities of it before diving in.
So, Can It Be Done?
Technically, yes – it can be done. A handful of landowners have successfully developed their own small or mid-scale projects.
However, we want to hammer home that they usually fall into one of these camps:
- They already had experience in planning, energy or infrastructure.
- They had the time and resources to build a team around them to make things work.
- They were institutional landowners with in-house legal, finance and energy teams to share the load.
For landowner-developers, building your own renewable energy project is a steep learning curve. It’s certainly not impossible, but the lessons can be rather expensive. So, it may be worth pricing up a project with a developer before you take the plunge.
Unless you’re willing to make this your full-time job for the next several years, it may not be worth the risk.
Determine your site’s viability
However, if you’re keen on giving it a try, take a look our calculators and factsheets to help you quickly figure out the viability of your site:
- Solar Irradiation Calculator
- Wind Speed Calculator
- Solar Farm Requirements Factsheet
- Wind Farm Requirements Factsheet
What Are the Stages of Self-Development?
This doesn’t get down to the details of self-developing, as starting a wind or solar farm is a complex process.
But let’s quickly run through the seven steps that a landowner-developer would face if they’re going it alone.
1. Site screening and land suitability
This involves checking solar irradiation or wind speed, the project’s proximity to the Grid and any local planning constraints that might hold the project up.
2. Feasibility studies
After you’ve confirmed that your site is viable, it’s time to carry out Environmental Impact Assessments, planning feasibility studies and technical surveys. This can involve checking the wind speed with an anemometer and figuring out how wildlife might be impacted by a project.
3. Grid connection process
Applying for Grid access (and possibly waiting years for a connection offer).
4. Planning permission
Submitting an application, navigating objections and responding to planning conditions.
5. Financing and sorting supplies
Raising capital and sourcing panels, turbines, contractors and insurance.
6. Construction and commissioning
Managing contractors, timelines and ensuring the build complies with regulations.
7. Operation and maintenance
Once the project is up and running, you’ll need to manage the site. This includes hiring site operators to service the project and monitor performance.
Is There a More Practical Approach to Building Your Own Project?
In our opinion, yes.
Instead of going it alone, those with suitable land for renewables will work with a reputable developer. This developer usually has plenty of provable success in the renewable energy space.
The developer takes on the risk, handles the entire process and pays you a regular rental income for use of your land. It’s a win-win that comes without the weight (and hefty cost) of self-development on your shoulders.
If you’d like to go it alone, we completely wish you well. It’s possible to build and run a successful project – we’ve seen it happen several times. We just want you to be fully aware of the size of the task you’re taking on before you dive in.
It pays to be prepared, and we find it removes a lot of the mental burden of setting up a typical renewable energy project too.
Need More Expert Guidance?
If you’re curious and want to explore your land’s potential working with a developer, we can offer expert consulting support through Lumify SiteStart™.
We’ll help find a developer, maximise your income and protect your interests.
Get in touch if you would like to find out more.
