29 July 2021
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3 min read
The Drax power station was once the largest coal plant in Western Europe | Credit: Drax
North Yorkshire power plant once dependent on 10 million tonnes of coal annually now produces 12 per cent of UK’s renewable electricity, according to Drax Group
The Drax power plant in North Yorkshire, once the largest coal power station in Western Europe, has slashed its emissions by 90 per cent in less than 10 years and can now claim to be a "purely renewable power generator", according to its owners.
In financial results posted today, Drax Group claimed it was now one of Europe's "lowest carbon utilities", following the sale of its power plant's gas assets to VPI last February and the end of commercial coal generation at the site in March.
Coal use at the plant will end completely in September 2022, when existing capacity market agreements come to an end, according to the company.
In the first half of 2021, the Drax power station generated 7.6TWh of power from biomass feedstock, producing roughly enough electricity to supply more than five million households, the firm said. It marks a major transformation from just nine years ago, when the power station was still burning 10 million tonnes of coal per year to serve six million UK homes, it said.
Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner said the plant's rapid decarbonisation was a "unique achievement" that would be "transformational" for both the firm and the environment.
"Replacing fossil fuels with clean power from renewables like sustainable biomass and hydro has enabled the UK's electricity system to decarbonise faster than any other major economy, but industry needs to go further than just reducing emissions - to permanently removing the CO2 in the atmosphere, if the UK is to achieve its ambitious climate targets," Gardiner said.
Earlier this year, Drax kickstarted the application process to build what would be the UK's largest biomass with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) facility at the Selby plant, a project the company claims will enable the plant to deliver 'negative emissions' - a process that would see the power station remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it produces.
Last month, Drax announced it had signed a deal with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to develop the pioneering carbon capture project, which is likely to depend heavily on government support and a favourable policy environment for the nascent sector to proceed.
However, Drax has come under fire for its focus on biomass and carbon capture in some quarters, with green campaigners fearful of the risks of investing in BECCS technology that is yet to be proven at scale and is reliant on a fuel feedstock that critics insist has questionable environmental and climate credentials.
An analysis from Ember in April questioned whether the BECCS project could credibly claim to deliver 'negative emission' power, estimating its construction would require £31.7bn in government subsidies over its lifetime - calculations that have been fiercely contested by Drax.
But Drax maintains the BECCS project is critical to the UK's climate goals, because it would deliver a significant proportion of the negative emissions the UK needs to meet its climate targets.
"By deploying BECCS, Drax will be leading the way in permanently removing millions of tonnes of CO2 while generating renewable power and supporting clean growth and thousands of jobs in the 2020s," Gardiner said. "BECCS is the only technology available now which can deliver the negative emissions the world needs to meet the climate commitments set out in Paris in 2015, whilst also generating the reliable renewable electricity the world needs."
