{"id":226764,"date":"2025-05-30T20:17:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T10:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/railuk.com\/?p=178102"},"modified":"2025-05-30T20:17:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T10:17:16","slug":"network-rail-stations-and-offices-go-solar-in-ground-breaking-deal-with-edf-renewables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=226764","title":{"rendered":"Network Rail stations and offices go solar in ground-breaking deal with EDF Renewables"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A solar farm about to begin construction in Norfolk will help to power Network Rail stations and offices thanks to a revolutionary deal with energy supplier EDF Renewables.<\/p>\n

Through the Corporate Purchase Power Agreement \u2013 a first for Britain\u2019s railway \u2013 Network Rail will secure 64GWh of clean energy at a fixed cost every year for the next 14 years, providing around 15% of the electricity needed for its offices, depots and managed stations \u2013 known as non-traction energy<\/p>\n

As a result of the deal, EDF Renewables will start work on a solar facility at Bloy\u2019s Grove, near Swainsthorpe in Norfolk, in sight of the Great Eastern Main Line.<\/p>\n

Just one year of clean energy purchased by Network Rail through the deal is the equivalent of powering London Liverpool Street station for nine years. In fact, over the 14-year contract, enough energy will be provided to power every Network Rail-managed station (all 20 of them) for eight years.<\/p>\n

The deal is a key part of the company\u2019s Green Strategy<\/a> which outlines the railway\u2019s route to a sustainable future. In addition, it is hoped to strike a further CoPPA to move all of Network Rail\u2019s non-traction electrical requirements to solar power in the next few years.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Westlake, Network Rail\u2019s chief financial officer, said: \u201cThis contract, the first of its kind for the railway, shows how organisations like Network Rail can use their buying power to drive investment in clean power generation for the country.<\/p>\n

“With the railway industry set to unite under Great British Railways, this contract, our Green Strategy, and a cohesive railway system provide us with even more opportunities to reduce emissions and make our railway even greener.”<\/p>\n

Jo Lewington, chief environment and sustainability officer at Network Rail, said: \u201cTravelling by train is already one of the most sustainable ways of getting around and we know we can do more as a business. In future we would like all of our office and station power to come from sustainable sources and this contract is a huge step forward towards that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The facility \u2013 which will be built, owned, and managed by EDF Renewables UK \u2013 could contribute to saving around 60,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission over its lifetime, which is equivalent to planting approximately 2.2 million trees.<\/p>\n

EDF Renewables UK is also offering a community fund of \u00a320,000 paid annually for the 35-year lifetime of the project.<\/p>\n

Image credit: Network Rail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A solar farm about to begin construction in Norfolk will help to power Network Rail stations and offices thanks to a revolutionary deal with energy supplier EDF Renewables. Through the Corporate Purchase Power Agreement \u2013 a first for Britain\u2019s railway \u2013 Network Rail will secure 64GWh of clean energy at a fixed cost every year [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2305,16017,343,47,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-industry-news","category-infrastructure","category-rail-news","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=226764"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228394,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226764\/revisions\/228394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=226764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=226764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=226764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}