Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate he has made of the volume of Best and Most Versatile land which will be used to host solar panels resulting from Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects approved in the last five years.

The government does not currently hold this information.

However, the Department currently monitors the geographical location of solar developments through the Renewable Energy Planning Database. There are plans to broaden the scope of this database to provide information on the area and types of agricultural land used by solar projects.

Planning policies guide developments away from Best and Most Versatile land where possible. The Solar Roadmap published in June 2025 sets out how much land we expect to be taken up by solar farms. Even in ambitious scenarios, we only expect up to 0.4% of total UK land, and up to 0.6% of total agricultural land, to be occupied by 2030.