Drax Power Station supplies 6% of the country’s electricity needs, including 15% of its renewable power – that’s a lot of boiling kettles. To do this, Drax operates on a massive scale. We’ve got six boilers, each as high as a 15-storey office block, a main chimney taller than the London Eye, and over 1,800 miles of steel tubing, enough to stretch from John O’Groats to Land’s End and back again. It’s a site built on superlatives and on a tour at Drax you can see it all first-hand. Even better, our tours are free and open to the public.
At Drax Power Station you can see every part of how electricity generation is done and find out how we’re upgrading to the latest biomass technology. This means we can use sustainable compressed wood pellets instead of coal, which cuts our carbon footprint by 80%.
Expert guides with years of experience are on hand to lead tailored tours for groups of all types, including those that support national curriculum studies, making it perfect for school students (and, who knows, future engineers) from all over the country.
All our tours include an interactive session and guided walks inside the very heart of the station. Our tailored experiences fit with school and higher education study, as well as areas of special or professional interest such as rail, sustainability and engineering.
Whilst we are currently unable to offer on-site tours, we have started an educational webinar program called ‘Drax In The Classroom’ for schools, please contact us for more information.
Drax Virtual Tours
Educational outreach is the central focus for the visitor centre team at Drax Power Station. Usually we show thousands of visitors around the station each year explaining how we make electricity.
Unfortunately, at the moment we can’t accept visitors at the power station, but we’re delighted to share parts of the tour and process with you.
We created the first series of virtual tours to be aimed at Key Stage 2 – primary level. This was then followed with a second series aimed at Key Stage 3 – secondary level. The sessions are a mixture of information and science on how we make electricity at the power station. They cover a range of topics from the type of fuel we use and why to how the electricity gets to your home.
Each series is in eight parts, which can be watched separately or in sequence and cover:
Series One (Key Stage 2):
- Pt 1 – Biomass & Carbon Cycle
- Pt 2 – Transportation
- Pt 3 – Domes
- Pt 4 – Pulverising Mills
- Pt 5 – Boiler
- Pt 6 – Turbines
- Pt 7 – Generator
- Pt 8 – Transformers & National Grid
Series Two (Key Stage 3):
- Pt 1 – BECCS
- Pt 2 – Power Generation and Transmission
- Pt 3 – Pulverising Mills and Efficiency
- Pt 4 – Boilers
- Pt 5 – Cooling Towers
- Pt 6 – Condensers
- Pt 7 – Biomass & Carbon Cycle
- Pt 8 – Generators
We hope you enjoy watching.
Key Stage 2 tour videos
What you can see
Introduction to the power station
How we generate electricity. Before heading off around the station, find out from our expert guides how the whole place works.
Biomass domes
Explore these huge structures – each taller than Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s roller coaster ‘The Big One’ – which store up to 80,000 tonnes of biomass.
Cooling towers
Click above and drag.
Witness the sheer scale of our 12 cooling towers, each one 374 feet high, where water the station uses is cooled and released as clean vapour.
Turbine hall
Viewing on a computer? Click above and drag. On a phone or tablet – just move your device.
Enter the 1,400 feet long hall at the very heart of the plant, where six huge turbines turn the generators to produce electricity.
Control room
Visit the control room, the station’s nerve centre, where our operators oversee the whole process of helping power the country.
The Skylark Centre and Nature Reserve
Our weekend tours include a visit to the Skylark Centre and Nature Reserve where you can explore local landscape and wildlife.
Tour info
- Tours take approx. 2 – 2.5 hours
- You’ll be accompanied by a fully trained tour guide
- Personal Protection Equipment is provided
- Please book at least two weeks in advance
- Minimum age for tours is seven-years-old
- Visitors will be asked to conform to safety procedures and instructions while on site
- Tours will include climbing stairs and similar activities – sturdy shoes and comfortable clothing are recommended
- Remember, we’re an operational site, so please don’t bring too much baggage with you
- For more information about data collection please view the Drax Power Station Tours Privacy Notice
Opening hours
Public tours of and visits to Drax Power Station are currently suspended.
The suspensions are to reduce the risk to business-critical areas of our operation.
We are planning to resume tours and visits in 2021, but we cannot guarantee this at the present time. Please check our website for the latest information and virtual tours.
School holidays & Weekend Tours
We often arrange special tours and events at weekends and during the school holidays. These tours and activities are bookable in advance. Event information will be listed in Events and appear on our Facebook Page and Twitter.
Book your visit now
Tours of the site can be arranged by completing the enquiry form below after which a member of the Drax team will contact you directly.
Map and address
Drax Power Station, Drax, Selby YO8 8PH
