Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment the Department has made of the potential merits of installing solar photovoltaic generation directly on railway infrastructure to provide lower cost electricity for the rail network and to reduce reliance on new national grid connections.

The government has established Great British Energy and is committed to significantly increasing the amount of renewable energy generation in the UK by 2030.

Network Rail purchases electricity for the railway and is committed to transitioning to renewable energy for both the electricity it uses for its own operations, and the electricity to power trains. Network Rail already generates some of this electricity on the rail estate and is continuing the roll out of new renewable generation assets (primarily solar) on the estate.