£75 million bid win for Zero Carbon Humber’s net zero ambition
Archives: Press Release
Funding secured to accelerate development of UK’s first decarbonised industrial clusters on the east coast of England
Drax Group CEO says Budget ‘sets out plans for the UK’s economic recovery’
“Today’s Budget sets out plans for the UK’s economic recovery – a Freeport in the Humber will make business cheaper and easier whilst an ambitious carbon price will help the UK meet its climate obligations by creating revenue to invest in essential green technologies and demonstrate climate leadership ahead of COP26.
Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner in the control room at Drax Power Station [Click to view/download]
“Investing in green technologies like bioenergy with carbon capture and storage at Drax to deliver negative emissions, and decarbonising other industries in the Humber would boost skills and create tens of thousands of jobs – helping to level up and deliver clean growth.”
Drax kickstarts application process to build vital negative emissions technology
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Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is an essential negative emissions technology needed for the UK to meet its legally binding net zero by 2050 target and demonstrate global climate leadership.
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Work to build BECCS could get underway at Drax as soon as 2024, creating tens of thousands of jobs and supporting a post-covid economic recovery
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By 2027 Drax’s first BECCS unit could be operational, delivering the UK’s largest carbon capture project and permanently removing millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.
Biomass domes and conveyor system at Drax Power Station, North Yorkshire [Click to view/download]
The energy company has already transformed its power station near Selby in North Yorkshire to become the largest decarbonisation project in Europe having converted it to use sustainable biomass instead of coal.
Now it has ambitions to go further by using BECCS to permanently remove millions of tonnes of CO2 each year from the atmosphere and create a negative carbon footprint for the company.
In order to deploy this cutting edge, negative emissions technology Drax must secure a Development Consent Order (DCO) from the government – a process which takes around two years to complete, and which will get underway in March.
Will Gardiner, Drax Group CEO said:
“Kickstarting the DCO process this March is a landmark moment in deploying BECCS at Drax and delivering against our ambition to be a carbon negative company by 2030.
Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner in the control room at Drax Power Station [Click to view/download]
“At Drax we are very proud of the great strides already made in transforming the business to become the UK’s largest single site renewable power generator, producing enough renewable electricity for up to four million homes and protecting thousands of jobs in the process.
“With BECCS we can go even further – we will be permanently removing millions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere and making a significant contribution to efforts to address the climate emergency, whilst creating thousands of new jobs and supporting a post-covid, economic recovery.”
Drax recently announced the proposed acquisition of Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc – a Canadian wood pellet producer. The deal, which is subject to shareholder and other approvals, would double Drax’s own biomass production capacity, in line with its strategy to increase self-supply, reduce costs and create a long term future for biomass – paving the way for the deployment of BECCS.
If successful in its DCO application, and subject to the right investment framework from government, work to build Drax’s first two BECCS units could get underway in 2024, ready to start capturing and storing up to eight million tonnes of CO2 a year.
The first phase of the DCO application process includes an informal public consultation during March, when people can provide comments on Drax’s proposals for BECCS via the project website.
Train transporting biomass wood pellets arriving at Drax Power Station [Click to view/download]
The news comes a year after Drax said it would end almost 50 years of commercial coal-fired electricity generation at Drax Power Station in March 2021 and is aligned with its intention to focus on renewable generation from biomass and hydro.
ENDS
Turbine blades at Drax Power Station [Click to view/download]
Media contacts:
Aidan Kerr
Drax Group Media Manager
E: [email protected]
T: 07849090368
Editor’s Notes
BECCS consultation:
- Due to covid restrictions, Drax’s BECCS DCO consultation events will take place online.
- Members of the public can find out more and provide comments on the proposals via live QA and chat events on:
- Tuesday March 9, 4pm to 8pm
- Thursday March 11, 4pm to 8pm
- Saturday March 13, 10am to 2pm
- Individual calls can also be booked with a member of the project team, on Tuesday March 23, via the website.
- The deadline for comments on the proposals is midnight on Sunday March 28, 2021.
- The feedback will be used to inform more detailed plans which will be subject to a formal consultation later in the year.
- Final plans are expected to be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in 2022.
Drax is a founding member of the Zero Carbon Humber, a partnership of 12 leading businesses and organisations, which jointly submitted a public-private sector funded bid worth around £75m to the UK Government to establish a CCS and hydrogen economy in the Humber region.
As the UK’s most carbon intensive industrial region, the benefits of decarbonising the Humber would have the greatest impact on enabling the country to reach its legally binding net zero by 2050 target, whilst generating clean growth for the economy.
Deploying hydrogen production at scale for fuel-switching, as well as carbon capture to decarbonise gas power and other industries, alongside BECCS at Drax, could create and support tens of thousands of jobs in the Humber region at its peak in 2027.
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.
Its 2,900 employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production.
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 two thirds of 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.
Customers:
Through its two B2B energy supply brands, Haven Power and Opus Energy, Drax supplies energy to 250,000 businesses across Britain.
Pellet production:
Drax owns and operates three pellet mills in the US South which manufacture compressed wood pellets (biomass) produced from sustainably managed working forests. These pellet mills supply around 20% of the biomass used by Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses.
For more information visit www.drax.com/uk
Britain’s greenest year yet but new technologies still needed to hit climate targets
- 2020 was a record year for renewables with biomass, hydro, solar and wind power generating more power than fossil fuels for the first time
- Carbon emissions from electricity generation fell by 16% as gas and coal power stations were turned off or down due to reduced demand during Covid lockdowns
- Experts warn UK must embrace new but proven technologies like bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) to meet climate targets in years ahead.
Independent analysis conducted by academics from Imperial College London for Drax Electric Insights, via Imperial Consultants, shows the UK will require a range of new green technologies, which complement renewables like wind and solar, as part of its efforts to meet its national climate goals.
Whilst power from renewables overtook fossil fuels for the first time in 2020 – and carbon emissions fell by 16% year-on-year, this was in a large part due to reduced demand caused by Covid lockdowns, when gas and coal power stations were turned down.
Wind and solar generated 30% of Britain’s electricity in 2020 – around half the share required by 2025 for the UK to reach its climate targets according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC).
The Electric Insights report shows that achieving the CCC’s targets will also require a range of other technologies, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), hydrogen and nuclear.
Dr Iain Staffell of Imperial College London, and lead author of the quarterly Electric Insights report, said:
“2020 saw Britain edge closer to the power system of the future with renewables generating more power than fossil fuels. Flexible technologies like pumped hydro storage kept the system stable as supply from renewables increased and demand for power fell.
“The next steps we must take towards a net zero power system will be more challenging – driving out the last sources of fossil carbon will require us to go beyond just having more wind and solar power. New business models, backed by policy and investment, will be needed to bring advanced-but-proven technologies into the mainstream.
“This means that the electricity used in homes, hospitals, offices and factories could even be carbon negative – sourced from a range of low, zero carbon and negative emissions technologies.”
Last year, a report by Vivid Economics found that deploying cutting edge green technologies like BECCS and hydrogen could create and support around 200,000 jobs across the UK to support a post-covid, green economic recovery.
Will Gardiner, Drax Group CEO, said:
“Drax is Europe’s largest decarbonisation project having transformed Britain’s biggest power station to use sustainable biomass instead of coal, creating the country’s largest single-site renewable electricity generator whilst supporting thousands of jobs.
“Biomass is unique amongst renewable technologies due to its versatility, from being used in power generation to hydrogen production – and even new forms of plastics. Add to this its ability to deliver negative emissions with BECCS – biomass is one of our most valuable tools for reaching net zero emissions – a technology Drax is ready to invest in.”
ENDS
Media contacts:
Aidan Kerr
Drax Group Media Manager
E: [email protected]
T: 07849090368
Ali Lewis
Drax Group Head of Media & PR
E: [email protected]
T: 07712670888
Editor’s Notes
- Renewable power supplied 41.6% of Britain’s electricity in 2020 compared to 39.6% by fossil fuels – the first-time renewable sources generated more power than fossil fuels over a whole year.
- Biomass, wind and solar all generated record amounts of power over the course of the year.
- Power from Britain’s few remain coal units supplied just 1.6% of the country’s electricity, down from 2.1% in 2019
- The CCC forecast that the share of electricity generated from wind and solar in Britain must reach 50% by 2025 and climb to 69% by 2030.
- Electric Insights data is for Great Britain, whereas CCC data also includes Northern Ireland and therefore covers the whole of the UK.
About Electric Insights
- Electric Insights is commissioned by Drax and delivered by a team of independent academics from Imperial College London, facilitated by the college’s consultancy company – Imperial Consultants. The quarterly report analyses raw data made publicly available by National Grid and Elexon, which run the electricity and balancing market respectively, and Sheffield Solar.
- Electric Insights Quarterly focuses on supply and demand, prices, emissions, the performance of the various generation technologies and the network that connects them.
- The quarterly reports from the last four years can be access at the new reports.electricinsights.co.uk website alongside the interactive electricinsights.co.uk which provides data from 2009 until the present.
- You can embed Electric Insight’s live dashboard on your website or blog to keep track of what’s happening in the power grid through a new widget.
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.
Its 2,900 employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production.
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 two thirds of 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.
Customers:
Through its two B2B energy supply brands, Haven Power and Opus Energy, Drax supplies energy to 250,000 businesses across Britain.
Pellet production:
Drax owns and operates three pellet mills in the US South which manufacture compressed wood pellets (biomass) produced from sustainably managed working forests. These pellet mills supply around 20% of the biomass used by Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses.
For more information visit www.drax.com/uk
Drax’s cooling tower tribute to national hero Captain Sir Tom Moore
Drax is projecting a message from employees ‘saluting’ the iconic NHS fundraiser on the 114m tall cooling tower at its power station in North Yorkshire, which will be seen from miles around.
The former Army Captain who was originally from Yorkshire, raised £32m for the NHS last year by completing 100 laps of his garden ahead of his 100th birthday.
Drax illuminated one of its cooling towers in blue lights last year in recognition of the work of the NHS during the first wave of the pandemic and also projected a poppy onto the cooling towers to raise money for the Royal British Legion on Armistice Day.
The message for Captain Sir Tom Moore at Drax is being projected from 6pm – 11pm on Friday, and will be visible from the west of the power station.
Storytime at Drax to bring employees and their families together during lockdown
Some of the world’s best loved children’s books are being read and recorded by employees at Drax Group as part of an initiative to support each other and their families during the Covid lockdown.
Around 40 people working for the energy company from across its power generation, biomass production and energy supply businesses have contributed to the ‘Storytime’ audio library project, reading and recording a few chapters of the books each.
The energy company owns and operates Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire which is the UK’s largest single site renewable power generator and the largest decarbonisation project in Europe following its conversion from coal to use sustainable biomass.
The Storytime initiative is part of Drax’s wellbeing work which aims to help employees live well and stay connected.
Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner, who recorded the first chapter of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the initiative, said:
“The idea to record the stories for children came about because we wanted to bring people together and help each other out during the lockdown.
“Telling stories is something us humans have been doing for literally thousands of years, it brings people together and creates a shared experience – which is something I think we’re all missing, to some extent, at the moment.
“Reading or listening to a story is a great way to escape into another world. I’ve always enjoyed reading to my own children when they were younger and I hope the recordings will provide others at Drax and their families with some entertainment, and make us all feel a little closer together, even though we are apart during this lockdown.”
The first two books to have been recorded by employees from across Drax’s operations in the UK and USA, are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and The Ice Monster by David Walliams.
The audio library will be launched at Drax during National Storytelling Week (Jan 30 to Feb 6) with the stories being posted on the Drax Group employee intranet service for people to download and listen to at home.
If the initiative proves to be popular with employees and their families, further stories will be recorded with titles chosen via an online ballot.
During the Covid pandemic, Drax has supported the communities it operates in through a number of initiatives, including donating over 850 laptops with internet access to schoolchildren across Britain who were unable to learn from home, supplying free energy to 170 care homes and backing a business debtline to offer support for small businesses.
Pic Caption: Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner reading from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for Drax’s Storytime initiative.
ENDS
Media contacts:
Aidan Kerr
Drax Group Media Manager
E: [email protected]
T: 07849090368
Megan Hopgood
Drax Group Media Intern
E: [email protected]
T: 07936350175
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.
Its 2,900-strong employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production.
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 two thirds of 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.
Customers:
Through its two B2B energy supply brands, Haven Power and Opus Energy, Drax supplies energy to 250,000 businesses across Britain.
Pellet production:
Drax owns and operates three pellet mills in the US South which manufacture compressed wood pellets (biomass) produced from sustainably managed working forests. These pellet mills supply around 20% of the biomass used by Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses.
For more information visit www.drax.com/uk
Drax leads the way in ambitious initiative to improve skills for a million people
- Drax is the first UK energy company to announce an initiative to improve employability for a million people by 2025.
- Publication of Drax’s Opportunity Action Plan is in partnership with the Social Mobility Pledge, led by the former Education Secretary, the Rt Hon Justine Greening.
- By pioneering cutting-edge carbon capture technology, Drax could make a major contribution to a post-covid, green economic recovery by creating and protecting thousands of jobs in the North.
Drax is the UK’s first energy company to make a pledge to boost social mobility for a million people by 2025.
It has announced the target as part of its Opportunity Action Plan developed in partnership with the Social Mobility Pledge, led by the Rt Hon Justine Greening.
Through its ‘Mobilising a Million’ initiative, the renewable energy company will connect with one million people by 2025 to improve skills, education, employability and opportunity.
It is one of a pioneering group of UK businesses and universities aiming to set a new and higher standard on boosting social mobility in Britain, with boardroom focus on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues, through the Social Mobility Pledge.
Drax’s new target has been launched as part of its Opportunity Action Plan – the culmination of its work with the Social Mobility Pledge team, which identified Drax as being a trail blazing, purpose-led business.
Drax donated laptops to students to assist learning during the Covid-19 crisis.
Justine Greening, Co-founder of the Social Mobility Pledge, said:
“Achieving true social mobility in Britain and levelling up our country is a huge challenge but one that businesses are rising to.
“Businesses like Drax have a crucial role to play in levelling up, and ensuring that our country’s Net Zero targets and ambitions are not just met, but delivered in a way that creates opportunities and levels up communities like Selby, Ipswich, Northampton and in Scotland where Drax has its operations.
“In publishing this Opportunity Action Plan and marking its ambition to improve skills, education, employability and opportunity for one million people – Drax has demonstrated its commitments to making a positive social impact.”
Drax is a leader in renewable energy, having converted the power station in North Yorkshire to use sustainable biomass instead of coal, transforming the business to become the largest decarbonisation project in Europe and the UK’s biggest single site, renewable power generator.
It plans to go further by using ground-breaking Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technology to become carbon negative by 2030 – meaning it will be permanently removing more CO2 from the atmosphere than its operations create.
As a founding member of the Zero Carbon Humber bid which aims to use BECCS, hydrogen and other CCS technologies to decarbonise industry across the region, Drax will help to level up the North. Independent analysis published last year by Vivid Economics shows that deploying these new, green energy technologies will create and support around 50,000 jobs, helping to reverse the economic impacts of the Covid crisis.
Clare Harbord, Drax Group Director of Corporate Affairs, said:
“Drax, along with other businesses, has an important part to play in making sure we have a future workforce with the skills to deliver the new technologies needed to decarbonise the economy and meet the UK’s net zero target.
“By boosting education, skills and employability opportunities for a million people, we can start to level the playing field and build a more diverse workforce. This will make the energy sector stronger and able to make a more significant contribution to the UK’s green recovery from Covid.”
The ambitious Mobilising a Million initiative was launched at a virtual event (on Thursday, 14 January 2021) with Justine Greening attended by local politicians and Drax’s education partners to discuss working together to support communities through Covid and beyond.
ENDS
Media contacts:
Aidan Kerr
Drax Group Media Manager
E: [email protected]
T: 07849090368
Peter Bould
Social Mobility Pledge
E: [email protected]
Editor’s Notes
Drax’s ‘Mobilising a Million’ initiative will include:
- Holding skills sessions via online media such as Oak Academy, Learn Live and webinars, and resume face-to-face sessions when practicable.
- Drax will continue our long-standing commitment to support education through site tours and virtual tours, educational outreach programmes, Stone Foundation, Laptops for Learners, and school interactions.
- The company will support employability by providing targeted support to enable individuals to develop their career through Apprenticeships, Graduate schemes, Internships, and Drax supported college partnerships.
- The initiative will improve opportunity in targeted schools with high proportions of free school meals, where we will increase positive interactions with a careers or educational focus by providing careers events and support, science fairs, work experience, CV support and women focused events to promote gender balance in the energy industry.
The Social Mobility Pledge was created in 2018 by former Secretary of State for Education, Rt Hon Justine Greening and entrepreneur, David Harrison.
It is a commitment from businesses large and small across Britain to become a Social Mobility Pledge employer, taking the three steps below:
1) Partnering – directly with schools or colleges to provide coaching through quality careers advice, enrichment experience and/or mentoring to people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances.
2) Access – providing structured work experience and/or apprenticeship opportunities to people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances
3) Recruitment – adopting open employee recruitment practices which promote a level playing field for people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances, such as name blind recruitment or contextual recruitment.
To date, over 450 businesses employing five million people, and 50 universities representing over two million students have signed the Social Mobility Pledge.
Business and employers can sign up today to be a Social Mobility employer at www.socialmobilitypledge.org
Vivid Report
Drax commissioned Vivid Economics last year to produce a report into the socio-economic benefits of developing bioenergy with carbon capture and storage BECCS alongside other cutting-edge green technologies in the Humber region.
The independent analysis shows almost 50,000 jobs would be created and supported in the Humber if BECCS, as well as hydrogen and other carbon removal technologies, are deployed to decarbonise industry. With government backing for the proposals, these new jobs could begin to be created as early as 2024, peaking at 49,000 jobs in 2027.
Within the jobs created in the Humber there would be around 25,000 high quality roles in construction – as well as welders, pipe fitters, machine installers and technicians; with a further 24,000 supported across the supply chain and wider economy in 2027.
You can read the full report here.
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.
Its 2,900-strong employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production.
Power generation:
Drax owns and operates a portfolio of flexible, low carbon and renewable electricity generation assets across Britain. 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 two thirds of 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. It also owns and operates four gas power stations in England.
Customers:
Through its two B2B energy supply brands, Haven Power and Opus Energy, Drax supplies energy to 250,000 businesses across England, Scotland and Wales.
Pellet production:
Drax owns and operates three pellet mills in the US South which manufacture compressed wood pellets (biomass) produced from sustainably managed working forests. These pellet mills supply around 20% of the biomass used by Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses.
For more information visit www.drax.com/uk
Drax to welcome 2021 with cooling tower projection
Drax Power Station will today signal the end of 2020 by projecting a Happy New Year message onto one of its 12 cooling towers.
The projection coincides with sustainable biomass generation in the UK hitting a new record, generating 3.6 GW during yesterday’s peak electricity demand, beating the previous record of 3.54 GW, set on 9th of December.
The message will be projected from 5pm – 2am today and 5pm – 10pm on New Year’s Day.
Photos below from a recent test
Biomass record
Renewable #biomass 🌿 helping to displace #coal 🪨 on Great Britain’s power system has broken a new record
3️⃣.6️⃣ Gigawatts 💡 were generated during yesterday’s evening’s peak #electricity demand, beating 3.54 GW set on 9 December
⚡️🎛📊👉🏾 https://t.co/otBFE9zO46 #ElectricInsights pic.twitter.com/1FBn9NpwLp— Drax (@DraxGroup) December 31, 2020
