Tag: energy security

Why investors are flocking to the energy powerhouse that is Scotland

8 June 2026

Opinion

This article first appeared in The Scotsman. 

The conversation about energy is often framed as a choice: security or affordability, climate ambition or economic growth, urgent action or long-term planning. But that is a false divide. Households, businesses and communities want a power system that is dependable, affordable, and capable of supporting a lower-carbon future.

That was reflected in the recent Scottish Parliament debate, “It’s Scotland’s Energy”, which underlined the growing importance of the subject to the country’s economic future, and increasingly its politics. The debate may have taken place in Holyrood, but the issues it raised matter for all the UK.

Scotland is exceptionally well placed to help solve the UK’s energy challenges. As Britain’s electricity system evolves, long-term investment is increasingly flowing to the places with the renewable resources, engineering capability and network infrastructure to support a more flexible power system. Scotland stands out on all three, and this is being recognised by investors.

Late last year,  ScottishPower announced plans to invest up to £12 billion to transform the grid, and SSE announced it was generating £3.4bn for Scotland’s economy as it delivers on its five-year investment plan.

Scotland’s strengths

Scotland has been central to Britain’s energy story for decades. With abundant renewable resources, a resilient and modern grid, and deep engineering expertise, Scotland has established itself as a true energy hub.

In 2025, Scotland generated record levels of renewable energy, while continuing to export surplus power to the rest of the UK. Its position as an energy powerhouse means it is also home to a highly skilled workforce with generational expertise.

Alongside the dedicated workforce, Scotland’s unique geography and heritage offer significant structural advantages. It’s home to some of Europe’s strongest offshore wind resources, with considerable opportunities for future development. It has long been at the heart of Britain’s hydroelectric industry and remains home to many of the UK’s most important, long-duration energy storage assets.

These technologies may not always attract the same attention as nuclear power or solar parks, but they will be essential to delivering a reliable, low-carbon power system.

Bringing greater stability to the National Grid

Generating renewable power is only one piece of the energy transition puzzle. As more wind and solar power comes online, and as transport, heating and industry continue to electrify, Britain’s electricity system will need to manage rising demand while balancing increasingly variable sources of generation.

Developing a reliable system under these conditions requires technologies capable of responding quickly and flexibly to today’s demands. This means long-duration storage technologies such as pumped-storage hydro and battery energy storage systems, or BESS, will play an even more central role in the transition.

These solutions allow the grid to respond more effectively to supply and demand fluctuations, while aiding long-term system stability. In fact, the National Energy System Operator has identified long-duration energy storage as a critical component of delivering a secure, decarbonised electricity system by 2035.

However, storage alone is not enough to solve the challenge. We also need significant investment in transmission infrastructure capable of moving renewable electricity. As Scotland’s capacity continues to expand, strengthening connections between the regions and nations is also important, lowering system costs and ensuring power can reach homes and businesses across the country.

Reducing exposure to shocks

Recent memory tells us we can’t take energy security for granted. The global gas crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed the vulnerabilities that can emerge when energy systems lack resilience. Even today, UK industrial electricity prices remain among the highest in Europe, creating challenges for competitiveness, manufacturing and investment.

Scotland has worked to create an environment that encourages sustained, long-term investment. Recently, the Scottish Government committed to invest up to £500 million over five years to support offshore wind infrastructure, manufacturing and supply chains. Additionally, the UK Government’s National Wealth Fund, Great British Energy and the Scottish National Investment Bank backed the development of the Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm, which could power up to 70,000 homes.

Last month, I saw first-hand how Scotland’s energy assets are supporting the whole of the UK. I visited colleagues at Drax’s Cruachan Power Station in Argyll, which this year celebrated its 60th anniversary, and where we are investing £80m in a refurbishment programme designed to increase generating capacity and strengthen the long-term role of pumped storage hydro in Britain’s electricity system.

At Glenlee in Dumfries and Galloway, which has been generating renewable power for almost 90 years, we  installed solar panels at our plant, making it the first of eight planned solar projects across our Scottish hydro assets. In the wider sector, projects such as Zenobē’s Coalburn battery storage facility demonstrate growing confidence in Scotland’s role as a centre for large-scale energy storage and grid innovation.

The value of investments like these extends far beyond the energy system itself. They support jobs, strengthen local supply chains and generate opportunities for communities. Scotland’s energy strength isn’t just beneath the seabed or in the wind, it’s in its people.

Too often, the energy debate is framed as a choice between competing priorities. In reality, energy security, affordability and decarbonisation depend on one another. Getting them right will help deliver a stronger economy and a more resilient future.

Our shared ambitions require continued support, but investment in the necessary infrastructure is already underway. This is particularly true in Scotland, which will have a pivotal role in helping Britain deliver that future.

The opportunity to strengthen Britain’s energy security, support economic growth and accelerate the transition to a lower-carbon power system is significant – and so is the responsibility to deliver it.

Betting on batteries: addressing intermittent inefficiencies at scale

2 June 2026

Opinion

This article has been republished with permission from ESS News.

As shockwaves from the Iran war continue to ripple through global oil and gas markets, countries across Europe have experienced soaring energy prices. Here in the UK, the average consumer’s power bill price cap has already spiked 18% per year, while businesses are experiencing increases of up to 80%.

At the same time, Spain has been largely insulated from the same supply chain disruptions. Over the last six years, it has invested heavily in renewables – predominantly wind and solar – reducing the influence of fossil generators on its electricity price by 75% since 2019. Many renewables also offer a differentiated source of domestically produced power, which reinforces energy independence and security while hedging against single-source supply chain shocks.

This is yet another proof point that weather-dependent renewables are grid gamechangers, but it’s important to acknowledge that they cannot address all of the challenges we are trying to solve in the UK. We need to keep investing in the wider system.

A high-renewables grid: managing variability with flexibility

Not only do weather-dependent renewables support energy security, but they’re now cost competitive with fossil fuels. However, because intermittent renewables are dependent on external forces like wind and sunshine, they need complementary sources of flexibility to keep supply and demand balanced in real time to address:

  • Oversupply and curtailment. When the sun is shining and the wind is blowing at full force, energy generation sometimes exceeds demand and/or grid capacity limitations. As a result, the UK spends more than £1 billion annually on curtailment, where the government pays generators to reduce or turn off output during these periods.
  • Undersupply and “Dunkelflaute” risk. The weather patterns that hinder wind and solar often offset each other, but sometimes both can falter at the same time. This occurrence – referred to via the German term “Dunkelflaute” – is more likely to occur in the winter, resulting in supply drops right when demand to heat and power homes is at its highest.
  • Day-to-day swings. In a typical day, intermittent renewables have periods of high and low production. At the same time, demand also has high and low periods. These supply low points often correlate with periods of high demand; for example, as solar generation falls away with the sunset, at-home lighting and appliance usage ramps up. This can result in grid strain and higher energy prices during the times when power is needed most but renewables are less available.

The “Duck Curve” is an industry term that refers to the shape created by the peaks and troughs of contrasting energy demand and intermittent renewable energy supply. The chart above visualizes the typical “duck” shape: a high morning peak (the tail), a deep midday dip (the belly) caused by record solar, and a steep evening ramp (the neck) as the sun sets and household demand spikes.

From national security to data security, the UK relies on consistent access to responsible, affordable power. Managing these swings is an integration challenge – not a reason to slow renewables. It’s a reason to accelerate the tools that make a high-renewables grid work to solve inefficiencies and unpredictability that can undermine the system, particularly during times of stress.

Balancing – not compensating for – intermittent volatility

Baseload generation is another key ingredient to stabilise the grid, helping to compensate for these supply swings. While this foundational support has traditionally been supplied through fossil fuels like coal, the UK has moved to more responsible alternatives like natural gas and sustainable biomass to anchor grid fluctuations.

Baseload generation supports grid stability, and weather dependent renewables are also essential but together they still cannot directly address when clean power is produced at the “wrong” time or the “wrong” place. This is where energy storage steps in.

Energy storage, including batteries, pumped hydro, thermal, and chemical solutions, complements intermittent power generation. These technologies can capture excess clean energy when generation is high and deploy it when supply is low, balancing supply and demand and helping flatten the duck curve. Energy storage solutions can extend the benefits of clean power generation and supply, meeting peak demand even when they’re not actively generating power, all while reducing reliance on baseload generation.

The UK plans to double its energy storage by 2030, and Drax is investing in new battery storage projects in the UK accordingly. Building from Drax’s existing long-term hydro storage assets, the company is investing in new projects in the UK to bolster its battery storage portfolio and improve energy security.

Looking to the future, long-duration energy storage (LDES) batteries also have a key role to play. Current economic and market structures favour lithium-ion-based short-term batteries, but it’s only a matter of time until long-term battery technologies become more efficient and affordable, and the rate of adoption is expected to grow exponentially as a result.

Recent geopolitical conflicts have reiterated the importance of a diversified, balanced energy system. Nations that adapt toward a system built on flexible generation and storage – designed to deliver reliability, affordability, and sustainability while insulating against future shocks – will have a clear advantage, both today and in years to come. We believe there is no better time than now to bet on batteries as part of the UK’s evolution to a more flexible energy system.

Why the energy transition demands a new playbook

1 June 2026

Opinion

During the last bank holiday weekend, as Britain basked in the sunshine, the national grid quietly made history. Demand plummeted to an all-time low of just 12.6GW – roughly the average daily demand of the Philippines. This was nearly four times less than we consumed on a cold, dark Thursday evening in January when the nation cranked up the heating and turned on the kettle. 

Seasonal demand swings are nothing new, and for decades have proved a rule that traditional, dispatchable assets like Drax Power Station are the backbone of our energy security. But in this week of warm weather and unprecedented low demand, solar has generated as much as half of the power Britain consumed – an unthinkable achievement ten years ago.  

Intermittent wind and solar, battery storage, electric vehicles and AI are changing our energy system profoundly and in real time. How government, the system operator and companies like Drax manage this change can be measured not in the millions but in the billions of pounds of difference to the British economy every year.  

At Drax our mission has always been to deliver what the country needs. For over sixty years, our assets have provided secure electricity to millions of the UK’s households and businesses. When climate change became a national imperative, we did what many thought impossible and transformed Western Europe’s largest coal fired power station into Britain’s largest single source of renewable electricity. Today, we are once more investing to deliver in the national interest. 

Our recommended offer for Bluefield Solar Income Fund is a key moment for our business and its next phase. This would be the largest deal in our history, and with BESS and OCGT development sites included, our renewable generation business and flexible generation assets combined will have a larger power capacity of over 3GW than Drax Power Station’s 2.6GW for the first time.

Potentially adding around 900MW of solar and wind with another 2.9GW pipeline of development, including JVs, into the Drax portfolio could mean we are able to keep the lights on whether it is a baking hot bank holiday or a damp and dreary January. And critically the cost of power generated by solar and wind is not impacted by the ongoing situation in the Strait of Hormuz. 

We’re building a diverse portfolio of hydro, batteries, gas, and now potentially wind and solar alongside a trading capability that will enable us to help deliver the UK’s energy security efficiently and affordably. We’re proud to have been at the heart of Britain’s energy system for sixty years, and we’re investing in and evolving our business now to ensure we continue to deliver what the country needs for decades to come. 

Please find the full announcement of the recommended acquisition of BSIF through the following link: https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/drax_group/news/rns/story/r7kk2zw

Commissioning of First OCGT Plant

29 May 2026

News

RNS Number: 1217G
Drax Group plc
(“Drax” or the “Company”; Symbol:DRX)

Drax is pleased to announce that commissioning of Hirwaun Power Station is now complete and Drax has assumed commercial control from the developer Metlen Energy & Metals. Hirwaun, which is located in South Wales, is the first of three 299MW Open Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT) plants which Drax is developing in England and Wales.

Drax Group CEO, Will Gardiner, said: “The successful commissioning of our first OCGT plant is a landmark moment for Drax.

“The energy transition is creating opportunities for us to invest and grow our business in line with the country’s energy needs. Alongside our OCGT developments, we have made initial investments in Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), which we see as an attractive market. We are continuing to explore options to invest in flexible and renewable energy, supporting energy security, creating value for stakeholders and attractive returns for shareholders in line with our capital allocation policy.”

The three OCGTs combined will provide capacity of c.900MW when fully commissioned and be remunerated via a combination of peak power generation, system support services, and long-term index-linked Capacity Market agreements. These Capacity Market agreements extend to 2039 and are worth over £260 million in revenue.

The sites benefit from a low fixed cost base with operation and dispatch managed centrally by Drax and day-to-day management of the sites by Siemens Energy.

Power generation and system support capabilities

The flexibility of OCGTs allows them to switch on and off quickly to meet periods of high demand, which supports the increased use of intermittent renewables across the UK system, supporting energy security, with a reduced dependence on fossil fuels and a reduction in net carbon emissions.

In addition, the OCGTs have been built with a clutch mechanism between the turbine and generator, allowing for them to operate as a Synchronous Compensator, which can provide additional non-generation services, such as inertia and voltage control, without engaging the gas turbine.

With the evolution of the UK market, continued roll out of renewables and an increased focus on energy security, Drax believe that demand for and value of these types of services will increase.

Featured image credit: Metlen Energy and Minerals

Enquiries:

Drax Investor Relations:

Mark Strafford
[email protected]
+44 (0) 7730 763 949

Media:

Drax External Communications:

Aidan Kerr
[email protected]
+44 (0) 7849 090 368

Website: www.drax.com

How biomass delivers system stability in an uncertain energy landscape

14 May 2026

Opinion

This article first appeared in Bioenergy Insight.

The energy landscape has fundamentally shifted over the past five years. What began as a singular focus on decarbonisation has evolved into a more complex challenge balancing climate goals with energy security, reliability and the explosive growth in power demand from artificial intelligence and data centres. For Ross McKenzie, chief sustainability officer at Drax Group, this transformation has reinforced a central thesis: that sustainable energy systems require more than just weather-dependent renewables to succeed.

‘A resilient energy mix is one that can absorb shocks without compromising reliability, affordability or sustainability,’ McKenzie explains. ‘In practice, that means balancing three complementary technology groups rather than betting everything on a single approach.’

Those three pillars, according to McKenzie, are weatherdependent renewables like wind and solar; flexible, dispatchable generation including sustainable biomass; and energy storage across multiple technologies from batteries to pumped hydro.

It’s a framework that positions biomass as a strategic asset for grid stability, rather than just a carbon-neutral fuel source. This perspective is gaining traction as power systems grapple with the reliability challenges of high renewable penetration.

The flexibility imperative

Wind and solar now comprise 35-40% of UK electricity generation and around 17% in the US, with further growth expected. However, their weather-dependent nature creates what McKenzie describes as ‘structural challenges’ during extended low-wind, low-solar periods.

‘Biomass is often assessed through the lens of carbon, land-use and deforestation, and that is an important part of the picture,’ he says. ‘But its system value is also significant. As a firm, flexible renewable source it can generate when wind and solar cannot.’

This dispatchability distinguishes biomass from other renewable sources in crucial ways. Unlike wind turbines that idle when the wind drops or solar panels that produce nothing after sunset, biomass plants can ramp up or down on demand, operating across both baseload and peak requirements to maintain grid balance.

‘As grids incorporate more intermittent renewables, extended low-wind and low-solar periods become a structural challenge,’ McKenzie notes. ‘Sustainable biomass can operate across baseload and peak demand to help keep the system balanced and secure, without adding fossil carbon to the atmosphere.’

This capability becomes increasingly valuable as renewable penetration grows. The more wind and solar capacity connects to the grid, the more critical becomes the need for flexible backup generation that can respond quickly when conditions change.

Geopolitics reshapes the conversation

‘Recent geopolitical disruption and supply chain volatility have reinforced the importance of energy security and affordability alongside decarbonisation,’ McKenzie continues. ‘That has sharpened the focus on the risks of overdependence on any single fuel source, and on the value of resilient, diversified systems.’

The result is a more nuanced policy conversation that recognises biomass not only for its decarbonisation potential but as what McKenzie calls ‘a strategic asset that can provide firm capacity and support system stability.’

In the UK and Europe, this translates into clearer emphasis on diversified low-carbon generation combining both intermittent and dispatchable sources. In the US, biomass discussions increasingly focus on strengthening domestic supply chains and supporting allies through energy exports.

‘Overall, policymakers are prioritising systems that can absorb shocks and maintain stability and predictable costs,’ McKenzie says. ‘Which elevates the role of technologies that deliver both flexibility and security.’

For Drax specifically, this shift validates its North American biomass supply chain strategy. ‘That diversification supports more stable fuel costs for Drax Power Station in the UK than a system reliant on more volatile international gas markets, while continuing to support sustainability objectives,’ McKenzie explains.

The AI factor

The emergence of AI and data centres as major electricity consumers adds another dimension to energy planning. Hyperscale companies increasingly seek 24/7 clean power solutions to meet ambitious sustainability commitments whilst ensuring uninterrupted operations.

‘Many major tech companies have set ambitious clean energy targets and are increasingly looking for firm, dispatchable generation to complement wind and solar.’

This demand profile strengthens the case for balanced generation portfolios that combine weatherdependent renewables with flexible sources and storage. Unlike traditional industrial consumers that might adjust operations based on electricity availability, data centres require constant power supply regardless of weather conditions.

‘That strengthens the case for a balanced portfolio combining renewables with flexible generation and storage to deliver reliable power when the country needs it,’ McKenzie notes.

System thinking

Drax’s approach reflects what McKenzie describes as ‘system thinking’ — viewing different technologies as complementary rather than competing assets. The company operates biomass, hydro, pumped hydro storage and is investing in battery storage, seeing each technology as contributing different capabilities to overall system stability.

‘Each contributes at different timescales providing firm capacity, flexibility and fast response, so the overall portfolio can balance variability, respond to demand in real time and support grid stability as intermittent renewable generation increases.’

This portfolio approach addresses what McKenzie characterises as the energy trilemma: delivering reliability, affordability and decarbonisation simultaneously rather than trading one objective against another.

‘In practice, energy systems must deliver reliability, affordability and decarbonisation together,’ he says. ‘A resilient approach is to build a diversified portfolio of assets so the system can manage variability and remain secure, even during periods of geopolitical disruption or supply chain volatility.’

The BECCS dimension

Looking forward, McKenzie sees Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) as potentially transformative for biomass’s role in energy systems. BECCS combines renewable electricity generation with permanent carbon removal — a dual function that could position biomass at the centre of net-zero strategies.

‘As net zero pathways become more defined, it is increasingly clear that carbon removals, including BECCS and other biogenic solutions, can play an important role for addressing residual emissions from hard-toabate sectors,’ he says.

The UK appears wellpositioned to develop BECCS at scale, given existing biomass infrastructure and access to carbon dioxide storage capacity in the North Sea. However, McKenzie emphasises that realising this potential requires coordinated infrastructure development.

‘The UK has many of the right ingredients to progress BECCS,’ he says. ‘Realising that potential at scale will depend on turning ambition into delivery, through CO2 transport and storage networks, investable market frameworks and long-term policy support.’

If those enabling conditions come together, McKenzie sees BECCS moving ‘from a promising option to a core part of the UK’s infrastructure toolkit — supporting energy security while delivering durable carbon removals.’

Balancing act

Ultimately, McKenzie’s vision for biomass reflects broader changes in how energy systems are conceived and managed. The focus has shifted from individual technologies competing for market share to integrated systems delivering multiple objectives simultaneously.

‘The objective is not a trade-off, but a balanced system that delivers immediate security of supply while staying aligned with a credible long-term pathway to net-zero,’ he concludes.

Reframing the energy transition: security, affordability and the road to a cleaner future

11 May 2026

Opinion

The energy transition is often talked about as a single destination: net zero. But in reality, it’s a set of trade-offs that have to work for people and businesses today; keeping energy affordable, secure and reliable, while building the lower-carbon system the UK needs. 

In this episode of The Purposeful Strategist, Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax, shares how the conversation is widening beyond targets and timelines towards the practical realities of powering a modern economy. From rising demand driven by electrification, data centres and AI to the constraints of the grid and the pace of building new infrastructure, the discussion gets into what it will take to keep the system stable as it changes. 

Listen to the podcast here.

A key theme is flexibility and how dispatchable generation and system support help balance intermittent wind and solar, manage volatility, and maintain resilience. Will also reflects on leadership in a high-scrutiny sector: the importance of communicating clearly, building trust, and making the case for why energy underpins everything from industry to everyday life. 

Listen now to hear what a pragmatic, system-wide approach to the energy transition looks like and what it will take to deliver clean power with security and affordability.

Supported by Norman Broadbent: https://www.normanbroadbent.com/

The UK’s energy trilemma requires more than price reform

27 April 2026

Opinion

This article first appeared in Energy Voice. 

The UK Government’s move to explore breaking the link between gas and electricity prices reflects a growing recognition that the current system is exposing consumers and businesses to unnecessary volatility. While reducing exposure to gas-driven pricing is an important step, it will not single-handedly remove the UK’s vulnerability to global markets if the system remains unbalanced. 

Historically, the UK has prioritised generation sources that offer ample supply and low cost, such as coal and gas. While coal has been phased out, and renewables like wind, solar, and biomass play a larger role than ever, the UK has become increasingly dependent on gas generation as a source of energy security. 

Recently, the energy debate in the UK has become unhelpfully polarised between those who believe we are either too dependent on gas or not dependent enough. While both arguments have merit, they miss the point entirely. The global energy transition has unlocked new technologies that make balancing the trilemma – affordability, security, and sustainability – possible for the first time. 

There are four main ways the UK benefits from these new technologies: 

  • Energy security and sovereignty: A growing number of generation technologies are scaling, meaning Britain can diversify its portfolio to produce and store a greater share of its power domestically, reinforcing energy independence. This in turn helps to protect consumers from geopolitical price shocks. 
  • Technological innovation and modernisation: Technologies like AI are expected to transform industries from healthcare to defence, finance and energy. Those able to power this demand stand to disproportionately benefit from them as they scale. 
  • Economic benefits and growth: Reliable, affordable energy is increasingly critical to attracting investment across sectors such as data centres and manufacturing, and a diversified system also helps stabilise prices. 
  • Environmental survival and sustainability: Decarbonising the system remains essential. By shifting to a mix of low-impact generation technologies, the UK can reduce emissions while maintaining reliability. 

Acknowledging the challenges 

The path ahead is exciting but also filled with obstacles, some known and many not. Political and economic uncertainty remains a key barrier to a balanced energy system. Investment decisions depend on confidence that projects will deliver stable returns. Volatility in inflation, regulation and policy increases risk and slows investment. 

As policymakers consider reforms to electricity pricing and market structures, clarity and predictability will be crucial. Signals that point towards more stable, contract-based approaches to generation can help unlock investment, but only if they are consistent and long-term. 

In the UK, where energy prices are among the highest in the world, limited energy storage and dependence on gas means shocks to oil and gas markets can spike energy costs. For example, since the war in Ukraine first choked off gas supplies to Europe, the UK has spent an additional £90 billion on gas – approximately £2,000 per adult.  

Closer to home, another influence can stall vital energy projects: community concerns. Companies should listen carefully to community leaders, communicate project benefits and stages clearly and consistently, and follow through on commitments to foster trust. Community support is essential to reach a final investment decision; if trust can’t be established in enough areas, it becomes difficult to meet future market needs.  

Another barrier is increased competition. While AI offers a potential pathway to a bright future, that same promise also lures away finite investable cash from vital industries including the energy sector. At the same time, supply chain constraints are increasing costs and delaying delivery. 

Compelling opportunities for the energy industry 

At the same time, there are clear opportunities for our industry to build an energy system that works for our future. 

The AI arms race hinges on access to power, with both the private and public sectors racing to secure supply. A growing mandate for companies to BYOP (bring your own power) provides increased autonomy for hyperscalers to choose how they provide the electricity for AI, and it offers a path forward that doesn’t require taxpayers to shoulder the financial burden. This private sector demand is already accelerating investment in new generation.  

It’s also becoming increasingly clear that nations need to fortify their energy security. Access to stable power is a game-changing differentiator to attract future economic opportunity, and strong energy independence and resilience can insulate against market swings – like those from international conflicts. 

Wind, solar, hydro, sustainable biomass, and geothermal diversify national energy portfolios, supporting reliability and price stability during supply chain disruptions. They can often be produced and/or stored domestically as well, further limiting exposure. 

Identifying responsible solutions 

To reach the full potential of these defining opportunities, the UK needs the right mix of technologies. A more balanced system – combining different technologies that can provide both low-carbon and reliable, dispatchable power – will be essential to making this work in practice. 

This includes weather-dependent renewables, such as wind and solar; flexible generation, such as open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) and biomass, to manage intermittency; and battery storage to manage peaks in demand and improve system stability. 

Market reforms can support this transition, but they will only succeed if they are matched by a system that is built for resilience, not just efficiency. 

As Ed Miliband set out, expanding clean, domestically produced power will be central to building a more secure energy system. It offers greater stability, control and a path to energy sovereignty. 

Making this a reality will depend on how the system is designed – combining renewables with flexible and dispatchable generation to ensure reliability. The direction is clear; the challenge now is delivery. 

The Case for Diversification

2 April 2026

Opinion
A resilient energy system demands multiple sources of power generation, flexible assets that can rapidly respond to spiking demand and supply-stabilizing storage technologies.

This article first appeared in Energy Intelligence

At the onset of the war in the Middle East, global energy markets reacted instantly. Oil prices surged and gas markets tightened, bringing the risk of renewed cost pressure for consumers and industry into focus. In many power markets, gas-fired generation still sets the marginal price of electricity, so when gas prices spike, electricity prices tend to follow. For the UK, a nation overly dependent on natural gas, this is a familiar dynamic following the shockwaves from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, the price of gas in the UK — which imports a large portion of its supply — surged by almost 25% following strikes on critical energy infrastructure in the Middle East. These events expose structural weaknesses in modern energy systems. The risk of disruption has long been visible — in geopolitics, supply concentration and infrastructure constraints — and it has been consistently underestimated.

For decades, countries have optimised for efficiency under normal conditions, focusing on low-cost generation, streamlined supply chains and just-in-time delivery. In doing so, systems have been left with limited shock absorbers.

When disruption hits, there is little buffer — only pass-through cost.

The impact is not just being felt in household bills. For energy-intensive industries, this volatility increases uncertainty, which can delay or deter investment. For governments, it translates into fiscal strain and heightened political exposure. For economies, it erodes competitiveness at the margin.

Pricing the Shock

High energy prices are damaging, but unpredictable energy prices can be worse.

The challenge of this unpredictability is even more acute as global electricity demand from data centres accelerates. Data center power demand could increase to 945 terawatt hours by 2030, more than Japan’s total electricity consumption.

Electrification, industrial growth and expanding digital infrastructure will further accelerate power demand. In this context, reliable and affordable power is nonnegotiable; it’s a prerequisite for growth and security.

Geopolitical challenges are increasingly being seen as a structural feature of the energy landscape, not episodic, and the 2020s are a clear lesson for energy security: The risks were always present, and the system hasn’t been designed to absorb them.

Security Trumps Decarbonisation

At CERAWeek this year, that reality was front and center. Across discussions with industry leaders, policymakers and investors, one theme came through clearly — the era of single-solution thinking is over:

  • Decarbonisation, while still an essential part of the conversation, is taking a back seat to energy reliability and affordability.
  • A diversified portfolio approach is progressively becoming the new default.
  • Power demand is a landscape-shaping force that favors flexibility.

Taken together, these shifts suggest the conversation is moving away from focusing on how to decarbonise energy systems toward how to make them durable, recognising that when reliability and affordability come under threat, sustainability is often deprioritised. Without a more holistic approach to balancing all three, we risk repeating that pattern and exacerbating the climate crisis.

Markets Redefined

This shift has profound implications for economic competitiveness. Markets with stable, reliable and affordable power systems will have a decisive advantage.

Those without could face higher costs, slower growth and reduced investment. Energy policy is, in effect, becoming inextricably linked with industrial policy.

Recent geopolitical crises have punctuated the need to avoid replacing one form of dependence with another; instead transitioning toward building energy systems that are more resilient by design. Today, that means diversification.

A resilient energy system demands multiple sources of power generation, flexible assets that can rapidly respond to spiking demand and supply-stabilising storage technologies. No single source can deliver consistent performance across all conditions, so a diversified mix ensures that when one becomes unavailable or costly, others can step in to maintain supply and limit price volatility.

In the wake of the latest energy shock following the war in the Middle East, inadequate long-term planning has left politicians concerned about pricing and rushing to mobilise short-term solutions — some of which could come at the expense of efforts to progress the energy transition, which risks undermining a truly resilient system long term. For example, some European countries called for quick reform to minimise the EU Emission Trading System’s impact on power prices, while others called for a full suspension.

One outlier in Europe is Spain, which saw renewable energy capacity rise to 57% of the country’s electricity mix in 2025. Spain has added over 40 gigawatts of solar and wind capacity since 2019.

As a result, gas sets electricity prices for a significantly smaller share of the day — around 15% — reducing exposure to global gas price volatility relative to other European markets.

On the other hand, the UK’s experience illustrates the cost of limited diversification. Despite rapid growth in renewables, wholesale power prices remain heavily exposed to gas, a dynamic that has contributed to some of the highest electricity bills in Europe.

Operators are increasingly responding by building more balanced portfolios that combine generation, storage and flexible assets to manage volatility. Drax’s own portfolio, spanning biomass, pumped storage, battery systems and open cycle gas turbines, reflects this shift, providing dispatchable power and system services that help stabilise the grid when supply tightens.

Resilience by Design

Designing for resilience requires a shift in mindset. Disruption should not be treated as exceptional, but as inevitable. The goal is not to predict the next shock, but to ensure the system can withstand it.

In a more volatile world, resilience is becoming the defining measure of energy security. The countries that succeed in the next phase of the energy transition will not be those with the most generation capacity but those with systems designed to endure disruption.

Ross McKenzie is the chief corporate affairs and sustainability officer for UK electricity generator Drax Group. The views expressed in this article are those of the author.

A prosperous future needs energy security and carbon removals – BECCS delivers both

Will Gardiner, Chief Executive Officer, Drax Group

2 April 2024

Opinion
  • Reaching net zero while delivering economic growth requires both energy security and carbon removals.
  • In the late 2020s, UK demand for energy is set to exceed secure and dispatchable supply by 5GW at peak times – leaving the country dependent on imported and intermittent sources to avoid shortages.
  • To bridge the energy security gap the Government needs to extend the lives of existing assets, including biomass and nuclear plants, and curb peak demand.
  • Drax plans to install Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) at Drax Power Station, if we secure the right support from Government this project will ensure the site continues to keep the lights on for millions of homes and businesses well into the future.
  • BECCS is a unique technology, nothing else generates renewable power while removing carbon from the atmosphere.
  • Bridging support for Drax Power Station from 2027 as a pathway to BECCS will mitigate the energy crunch and reduce dependency on intermittent generation.
  • There is a huge opportunity for carbon removals technology to assist with other industries in decarbonising, and further opportunities to reduce cost by sharing resources.
  • BECCS is only possible if we ensure high standards for carbon removals, and these standards must acknowledge the difference between engineered and natural solutions.

We all know that action is needed to tackle the global climate emergency. If we get these changes right, they will ultimately be beneficial to economies and society.

Industries of all kinds will need to reduce their CO2 emissions. While reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is vital, it is becoming clear that reductions alone are unlikely to be enough: it will also be necessary to remove GHGs from the atmosphere to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5C. Any residual emissions in hard-to-abate sectors like aviation or agriculture will require carbon removals at scale, in both a combination of nature and technology-based carbon removal solutions.

This vision of the future doesn’t have to mean low-growth economies or scarce energy supply. Instead, we can build and adapt our energy systems for a sustainable future that enables prosperous economies and thriving societies.

Today, energy systems are some of the world’s most emission-intensive sectors, though many are rapidly decarbonising. The UK has made excellent progress in delivering this, ahead of many other countries, with around 60% of its power now coming from low-carbon sources.

The continued evolution of the energy industry is also intrinsically connected to delivering carbon removals at scale.

The two primary engineered carbon removals technologies are BECCS and Direct Air Capture and Storage (DACS). DACS can remove CO2 from ambient air and then store it underground. To do so, DACS requires a low carbon source of power. BECCS, by contrast, generates power using renewable biomass that absorbs CO2 as it grows. The CO2 is then captured and stored safely and permanently underground.

Done right, they both remove more CO2 than they emit – delivering carbon removals. But BECCS’ unique capability to deliver carbon removals while generating 24/7 baseload power means it can support energy security while helping to tackle climate change.

Delivering energy security in a net zero future

As society electrifies to meet net zero, the demand for power will substantially increase. Meeting these increases will require governments to work with the private sector to deploy a range of technologies. Increasing deployment of renewables like wind and solar around the world will be vital. But these intermittent sources will need complementary technologies like short and long-term energy storage, as well as baseload power generation that can ensure energy systems remain secure and stable.

BECCS is the only renewable energy and carbon removal technology that offers the full suite of system support services. This includes a reliable, stable source of power integrated with other intermittent renewables, something that will only become more important as energy systems decarbonise.

One example of the role biomass can play in global energy solutions comes from research we commissioned from Baringa, which finds that peak demand for UK energy will increase by up to 7GW by 2027. The closure of coal, older gas, and nuclear power stations, however, will also remove up to 7GW of secure capacity from the grid. This could be further exacerbated by ongoing costly delays in new power plants such as Hinkley Point C, which is not expected to be completed until 2031. This means the percentage of ‘secure’ capacity needed to cover peak demand in the UK is projected to decrease

Recent independent analysis by Public First, reaffirms that the UK will hit an energy security “crunch point” in 2028, and the UK’s demand for power is set to exceed secure dispatchable and baseload capacity by 7.5GW. This shortfall would leave the UK more dependent on intermittent domestic and international generation.

Therefore, existing assets like Drax Power Station will be even more critical to energy security. Bridging support for Drax Power Station from 2027 until BECCS is online will reduce the risk of energy shortages and reduce dependency on overseas sources, supporting energy security and decarbonisation through the crunch.

The Government’s Powering Up Britain strategy aims to set the course for delivering the UK’s net zero and energy security ambitions. A key part of this programme is carbon removals and the development and deployment of large-scale Power BECCS by 2030.

We’ve shown at our North Yorkshire site how BECCS is ready to work within the current energy ecosystem. It’s an opportunity to utilise existing infrastructure, convert coal power stations and adapt to an energy secure, net zero future.

In January 2024, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Claire Coutinho, approved the Development Consent Order (DCO) for our plans to convert two biomass units at Drax Power Station to BECCS.

Providing the coming months see real progress in our discussions and there is swift decision making, we stand ready to invest billions to develop what will become world’s largest engineered carbon removals project at Drax Power Station.

Our plans for Power BECCS in North Yorkshire would enable us to remove up to eight million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere per year, while still generating secure, dispatchable, renewable power for millions of homes and businesses.

Without BECCS at Drax, the UK’s target of five million tonnes of carbon removals by 2030 would be difficult to achieve. The pioneering project would build on Yorkshire’s proud industrial heritage, as well as potentially delivering more than 10,000 jobs at the height of construction and position the county and the UK as leaders in the race to create and scale a technology required to capture greenhouse gas emissions.

The DCO approval is another milestone in the development of our BECCS plans and demonstrates both the continued role that Drax Power Station has in delivering UK energy security and the critical role it could have in delivering large-scale carbon dioxide removals to meet net zero targets.

It offers a model for energy security globally. While ensuring the phase-out of fossil fuels around the world, biomass offers a renewable, flexible alternative to reduce our dependency on forms of power such as coal. With BECCS, we can go further by transforming existing coal power stations from carbon emitters into carbon removers.

Decarbonisation across industries

Carbon dioxide removal technologies, like BECCS and DACS, can neutralise hard-to-abate and residual emissions across whole industrial clusters.

Furthermore, carbon removal hubs or clusters, with shared decarbonisation goals, technology, and infrastructure, offer locations where BECCS and DACS can help emissions-intensive industries decarbonise. Sharing infrastructure, like pipelines and storage locations can reduce the cost of deploying carbon removals by creating economies of scale.

Major industries like steel, cement, and chemicals, that employ millions of people around the world may only be viable in a net zero future with connections to carbon removals technologies. BECCS also offers these industries, that depend on energy-intensive processes, an alternative source of power from fossil fuels.

Baringa’s analysis found that Drax’s proposals for BECCS at Drax Power Station could save the UK up to £15bn in whole economy costs in meeting the country’s net zero goals between 2030 and 2050. It also demonstrates that without BECCS at Drax, meeting carbon reduction targets is more complicated and expensive and carbon savings would be needed in other sectors.

Research by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading authority on climate science, also states that to tackle climate change, up to 9.5 billion tonnes of carbon removals via BECCS will be required globally per year by 2050. So as the world enters the pivotal decades to act on the climate crisis, governments around the world must take action. One idea of a decarbonisation hub is included in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which commits $3.5 billion to developing four regional Direct Air Capture Hubs.

The Inflation Reduction Act’s total $369 billion funding package focused on energy security and climate change contains a host of potential opportunities for BECCS deployment across renewable power generation, sustainable aviation fuel and hydrogen.

These include a $40 billion loan fund for projects which utilise innovative technology to reduce, avoid or sequester carbon, and $140 million to create a competitive purchasing programme for carbon removals.

Furthermore, the act increases the availability of the 45Q tax credit for carbon capture and storage projects, increasing their value from $50 a tonne of carbon removals to $85 per tonne. These are all promising steps to creating the market and environment needed to deploy technologies like BECCS and DACS.

We recently announced that we’re launching a new business focused on becoming the global leader in large-scale carbon removals, which will oversee the development and construction of our new-build BECCS plants in the US. These projects, through the investment they attract and the jobs they generate, can become key economic drivers in a given region.

The global opportunity for BECCS is clear. The market for carbon removals is growing. And we want to ensure BECCS offers a high-integrity form of carbon removals that delivers permanent carbon sequestration.

Ensuring high quality carbon markets

As pioneers in the field, we’re setting the bar for carbon removal standards, ensuring quality is intrinsic to Drax’s offering. To help achieve this, we’ve partnered with Stockholm Exergi and EcoEngineers to develop a world-leading methodology to ensure the integrity of BECCS carbon removals. Our paper, ‘Corporate climate claims: The case for including permanent carbon removals’ also looks at resetting the standard on corporate claims for carbon removals. Tackling climate change while advancing sustainability is at the heart of our purpose and we’re committed to supporting organisations – especially those with hard-to-abate emissions – work towards decarbonising and reaching climate targets.

From the biomass used to fuel BECCS, to capture and transport processes, it’s imperative the carbon removed is always greater than any carbon emitted throughout the process.

Building from a sustainable base, with a high set of standards can make BECCS a transformational technology in powering the future and delivering carbon removals. No other technology can do both. BECCS can generate renewable power. BECCS can remove emissions. BECCS can deliver a prosperous, net zero future for the world.

To find out more about BECCS and how carbon removals can support your company’s decarbonisation journey, visit draxcarbonremovals.com