Drax partners with Patch to enhance carbon credit offering

Carbon dioxide removals (“CDRs” or “carbon removals”) and renewable energy company, Drax Group, has today partnered with Patch, a climate technology company that is building digital infrastructure for the carbon market of the future.

Patch’s software helps voluntary carbon market participants buy, sell, and manage credits. With the Patch Radius software solution, Drax customers will be able to seamlessly      purchase from a number of portfolios of carbon credits, including those from BECCS by Drax.

Drax has the ambition to become a global leader in carbon removals through the implementation of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technology, with the aim of capturing 14 million metric tonnes of carbon removals a year by 2030. Supporting Drax’s ambition in carbon removals, this partnership aims to accelerate the carbon market by facilitating carbon credit sales to companies of all sizes looking to achieve their climate goals.

Marc Bradbrook, SVP Business Development said, “A strong carbon market will be essential to accelerating the deployment of technologies like BECCS, and business and organisations need to invest in building it now, if we are going to see removals at the volume needed to limit warming to 1.5°C.”

“We are delighted to be entering a partnership with Patch which we hope will enable us to better engage with customers in the carbon credit market and scale this critical industry.”

High integrity carbon credits are increasing in demand as more organisations look to hit their decarbonisation targets. In addition to using the Patch software to facilitate the sale of BECCS by Drax credits to Drax customers, Drax also plans to submit BECCS by Drax credits to be evaluated against Patch’s project acceptance criteria. Once successfully onboarded, BECCS by Drax credits will be available to Patch’s broader network of customers.

“Drax is leveraging Patch Radius to deliver to its customers exactly what they’re looking for: a way to seamlessly access carbon credits. We’re excited to partner with Drax to enable more companies to understand and engage with a range of carbon credits,” said Jan Mertens, VP of Global Revenue at Patch.

Drax has agreed deals with Respira for up to two million metric tonnes of carbon removals, and C-Zero, and is continuing to see commitments from emerging players across industries in this space.

Scientists at the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have reached consensus that the world needs to remove and manage gigatons of carbon dioxide to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

To learn more about carbon removals at Drax, visit: draxcarbonremovals.com.

ENDS  

Media contacts: 

Sloan Woods
Media Manager 
E: [email protected]
T: 07821665493

Photo Caption:

  • Members of the Drax and Patch teams meeting at VERGE 2023

Editor’s Notes:  

  • Drax is an international, growing, sustainable business at the heart of global efforts to deliver net zero and energy security, and is accelerating its progress in the development of global BECCS projects.
  • Nearly all pathways to limit global warming to 1.5C require carbon removal technologies, such as BECCS.
  • The IPCC believes that globally up to 9.5 billion tonnes of CDRs via BECCS will be required per year by 2050.

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 www.energy.drax.com

About Patch

Patch is the infrastructure powering the carbon market of the future. Patch software brings together corporate buyers, project developers, financiers, and policymakers to increase transparency and modernise climate action. Companies like Credit Suisse, Bain & Company, and Aviva use Patch to access the broadest network of vetted carbon credits available through direct purchases, multi-year offtake agreements, and digital transactions through an API. With over 400 million tonnes of carbon actively managed on Patch, project developers also look to Patch to streamline operations and scale their impact. To help rebalance the planet, visit patch.io.