Jane Breach, Drax UK Community Manager, said: “Drax has a long tradition of giving back to the communities we operate in, and this year we have stepped up our community funding to allow us to support even more good causes and ensure our business has a positive impact on people, nature and the climate.
“We are pleased to announce that in the first round of community funding this year we will be awarding close to £60,000 of grants to 40 different organisations in the UK which support STEM education and skills or work to improve the local community.”
Of the total, £37,530 has been awarded to 26 different community-led projects local to Drax Power Station near Selby. This includes developing an outdoor space for volunteering and educational opportunities at St John’s Church in Goole, purchasing equipment to deliver a STEM programme for children at Carlton Playgroup, helping Kellingley Juniors Football Club to purchase sports kit and the Stillingfleet Community Group to deliver a village playground project.
Jonny Patton, Operations Director at St John’s Church, said: “As the only greenspace in the centre of the town, St John’s churchyard has the potential to make a significant contribution to the lives of the people of Goole, and play a key role in the rejuvenation of the town centre. This donation from Drax will help us to progress plans for our project ‘Life and Hope Gardens’, which will be an inclusive and accessible space for volunteering, community-led projects and school activities as well as create opportunities to reduce social isolation and improve health and wellbeing.”
Drax’s Community Fund donations are awarded once a quarter to local projects in the regions where Drax operates which fit into the following categories:
- STEM education, skills development, and employability
- Improving green spaces in local communities
- Improving our communities
Heather Palmer, Director at Carlton Playgroup, said: “We applied to the community fund because we wanted to deliver a new STEM educational programme which would give children the opportunity to develop the concepts and skills needed for these subjects later in life. This donation will allow us to purchase learning resources such as magnifying glasses, nature puzzles, counting blocks, wooden nuts and bolts and coding games all of which promote curiosity and innovation through active learning, playing and exploring.”
Drax’s Community Fund provides donations of £500-£2,000 for community-led projects. In addition, the Drax Foundation was launched in March this year to award larger grants of up to £50,000 for established non-profit organizations.
Organisations and initiatives that meet Drax’s funding and selection criteria are encouraged to visit www.drax.com/community to learn more about the Foundation and submit an initial expression of interest.
ENDS
Pic caption: Drax UK Community Manager Jane Breach and St John’s Church Vicar Hannah Patton
Media contacts:
Megan Hopgood
Communications Officer
E: [email protected]
T: 07936 350 175
Editor’s Notes
The organisations that have been awarded funding local to Drax Power Station are:
- Woodlesford Primary School
- Bubwith Coronation Party
- Ashby Junior Tenpin Bowling League
- Wakefield Wildcats Netball Club
- Snaith Juniors Sonics Under 9s Team
- York RLFC
- Applefields School
- Carlton Railway Society
- Brayton Busy Bees Preschool
- Wheldrake with Thorganby CE Primary School
- Thorne Sea Cadets
- The Rubicon Centre, Selby
- Second Chance Ostomy, Selby
- Whitley Bridge Cricket Club
- Carlton Primary School
- Kellingley Juniors Football Club
- Carlton Playgroup
- Airmyn Park Primary School
- Stillingfleet Community Group
- St John’s Church, Goole
- Camblesforth Social Events Committee
- Hensall Community Hall
- Carleton High School, Pontefract
- Vixens & Falcons Netball
- Selby Cricket Club
- The Goole and District Community Transport Group
About Drax
Drax Group’s purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future and in 2019 announced a world-leading ambition to be carbon negative by 2030, using bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technology.
Drax’s around 3,000 employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production and supply to third parties. For more information visit www.drax.com
Power generation:
Drax owns and operates a portfolio of renewable electricity generation assets in England and Scotland. The assets include the UK’s largest power station, based at Selby, North Yorkshire, which supplies five percent of the country’s electricity needs.
Having converted Drax Power Station to use sustainable biomass instead of coal it has become the UK’s biggest renewable power generator and the largest decarbonisation project in Europe. It is also where Drax is piloting the groundbreaking negative emissions technology BECCS within its CCUS (Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage) Incubation Area.
Its pumped storage, hydro and energy from waste assets in Scotland include Cruachan Power Station – a flexible pumped storage facility within the hollowed-out mountain Ben Cruachan.
The Group also aims to build on its BECCS innovation at Drax Power Station with a target to deliver 4 million tonnes of negative CO2 emissions each
year from new-build BECCS outside of the UK by 2030 and is currently developing models for North American and European markets.
Pellet production and supply:
The Group has 19 operational pellet plants and developments with nameplate production capacity of around 5 million tonnes a year.
Drax is targeting 8 million tonnes of production capacity by 2030, which will require the development of over 3 million tonnes of new biomass pellet production capacity. The pellets are produced using materials sourced from sustainably managed working forests and are supplied to third party customers in Europe and Asia for the generation of renewable power.
Drax’s pellet plants supply biomass used at its own power station in North Yorkshire, England to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses, and also to customers in Europe and Asia.
Customers:
Drax supplies renewable electricity to UK businesses, offering a range of energy-related services including energy optimisation, as well as electric vehicle strategy and management.
To find out more go to the website energy.drax.com
